Re: [Harp-L] RE: name any other instrument that...

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

author, "Jazz Harp" (Oak Publications, NYC)
Latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
Twitter: lightninrickI have a few stringed instruments that fit the bill (i.e. non-harmonica diatonic instruments): mountain dulcimer, strumstick, firestick.  All three have a fretboard that provides only diatonic intervals, and are strung with three strings (normally) tuned root-5th-root octave, all of which is well-suited to playing singles notes and chords on simple material (i.e. stuff where all the notes lie within a single major scale). The strumstick is a slender, lightweight hollow-bodied wooden instrument whose home key is G, though you could tune it up or down a minor third.  The Firestick is a lower-keyed, solid-bodied, heavier version of the Strumstick fitted with an electric guitar pickup, with a home key of D (which again could be tuned up or down a minor third). 

As with harmonica, you can get different tonalities from these instruments by re-tuning one or more of the strings, e.g. if you tune the highest-pitched string on the firestick down a whole step, you now have an instrument that plays parallel dominant seventh chord shells (root-5th-b7th), with an extended range in certain minor keys.

I enjoy playing these instruments and recording with them.  My piece "Kill the Doctor (That Killed My Wife)" includes a prominent Firestick part; the instrument is tuned up to F, and uses the altered tuning described above to make some chunky 7th chords available.  The part was played and recorded twice to get a thicker sound, and the different tracks were treated with different setups in Line 6's Pod Farm amp and FX modeling software. The intent was to make the Firestick fill the role of guitar in a typical amped blues band, and I think it worked pretty well. You can find it on this page:
http://www.hunterharp.com/all-hunters-downloads-in-one-place/#EHband

The recording of "Auld Lang Syne" that immediately precedes "Kill the Doctor" on that page uses a strumstick in place of a guitar, also treated post-recording with Line 6 Pod Farm, and I think again that the part is convincing.  These instruments are strung with banjo strings, which lack the sustain of a guitar string, but they sound big and resonant on chorded lines.

The great attraction of all these instruments, for someone like me whose primary instrument(s) is not and probably will never be guitar, is the same as their greatest limitation: out of the box, they only play a single scale.  That means you can go a long way on the instrument, compared to a beginning guitarist, very quickly with a few simple fingerings (as simple as a finger laid over the frets as a bar) and attention to pick hand technique.  Then you hit a wall, and it's a bigger wall than a guitarist will ever face; there are a lot of things you can't do with a strumstick, but there isn't much you can't do with an electric guitar. (I saw some guy playing Springsteen's "Tom Joad" on a public TV tribute to bruce Springsteen concert, and the variety of sounds he was able to get out of an electric guitar was pretty amazing.  Lots of ideas for new Digitech RP patch sets in there, and for ways to use my existing patches.  For example, he played one segment of his solo with straight quarter notes high up on the neck, pushing the wah wah up and down on every note; crazy cool sound.)    

I don't have the kind of time available to study guitar that I used to have available to study piano and harmonica, so I'm not likely to become a highly skilled guitarist.  I love having something that I can just strum and get a good sound, every time, whether I practiced it or not. At some point I may decide to take up slide guitar with a little more fervor, but those sticks are just so damn easy.       

Regards, Richard Hunter