[Harp-L] Will Scarlett's place in the history of overblows

[Tom Halchak]

Hello Rick:

Thanks for your email.  We can agree to disagree agreeably.  I am hardly a
professional harmonica player, but I have been playing for just about 50
years.  I'm not half bad.  In addition, as you know, I build custom
harmonicas.  I have been customizing harmonicas for about 10 years.  It has
been a steep upward climb. There is always something new to learn and some
way to get better.  That is part of the enjoyment for me.  I think I hit my
first 6-overblow about 9 or 10 years ago - quite by accident.  I didn't
understand them.  I didn't know what caused them.  I didn't understand how
to set up harps to facilitate them.  But I was intrigued.  I started to
practice playing the overblows.  It was a struggle at first, but with
persistence, they became much easier. I went through the identical learning
curve when I took on the challenge of learning how to tongue block.  As I
was developing my playing skills, my customization skills were following a
similar path.  I was building a lot of harps (still am) and I was getting
tons of practice setting up harps.  The Overblows came first.  The
Overdraws came later.  Different skill set - both for playing them and
customizing reed plates to play them.  My skills developed in parallel.
For a few years I was kind of operating in the dark.  I didn't really have
an expert to guide me in these uncharted waters.  It wasn't until I started
working with Jason Ricci that I had someone who could critique my ability
to set harps up specifically for Overblows and Overdraws.  He has been, and
continues to be, a tremendous resource for me.  Just a great guy to bounce
ideas off of and to send my experiments to for evaluation.  It was not
until after I could deliver a harp to Jason and he was able to take it
straight up on stage and perform with it immediately that I started
offering Overblow/Overdraw Harmonicas.   That was about 5 years ago.  As I
said, I am not a professional musician, but in order to be able to build an
Overblow/Overdraw harp you have to be able to play them.  Furthermore, you
have to be able to set harps up to respond the way a professional musician
wants and needs it to - such as the ability to bend the Overblows and
Overdraws for added inflection and the ease with which you can release the
Overblows and Overdraws.  Lots of very subtle little things.  I simply do
not agree with your statement that they sound awful.  They don't sound
awful when I play them and they don't sound awful when lots and lots of
guys play them.  I just plain disagree with you on that.

Regarding the SUB-30, I share your disappointment.  As you know, I am
heavily invested in the SUB-30 and have been since the day it was
introduced at SPAH in 2012.  Brendan Power, inventor of the SUB-30,
commissioned me to build a custom comb it when I met him at the SPAH
Convention.  Without going into minute details, Brendan made his first best
guess on a couple of designs and we got things off the ground.  It was
Brendan who developed the Overvalve Plate - not me.  Brendan's
Overvalve Plate adds 6 additional valves on the 1-6 chambers and
required some pretty involved handiwork to install it on a SUB-30.
Brendan, of course, has moved on and has developed a myriad of other
ingenious harmonica designs and probably has little to do with the SUB-30
now.  On the other hand I improved his designs and developed the External
Valve Plate, which adds 10 valves and is super easy to install.  I also
redesigned the custom comb for the SUB-30, so there has been a significant
evolution.  I even modified and improved my original design for the
External Valve Plate.  EVP 2.0, if you will.  The custom components I have
developed, plus expert reed work, has transformed the SUB-30 into a very
very good instrument.  It is kind of a best kept secret.  So I do share
your feelings about the SUB-30 and would like to see it become a little
more mainstream.  I think back in 2012, it was a good idea that was poorly
executed by Suzuki, but thankfully, it is still in production.  I also
think that the popularity of Overblows and Overdraws as an option for
playing chromatically has had an impact on the success of the SUB-30.  Just
my 2 cents.

Anyway - always fun to have a friendly debate.  All the best to you.

Tom

On Sat, Feb 12, 2022 at 7:08 PM Rick Dempster <rickdempster33 at xxxxx>
wrote:

> Nothing to do with pitch Tom. A 'single reed played in reverse' (ie and
> over-whatever) sticks out like dogs balls from the rest of the harp.
> If all the reeds sounded like that you'd bin it.
> I've heard Levy live, I've listened to heaps of players using the
> technique. discovered the technique for myself and used it for decades.
> I embossed harps and had them done for me. There are indeed some wonderful
> players using the technique, to whom I don't come near (see? I can swallow
> my sour grapes)
> If there is any  'sour grapes' it is over the failure of the Sub30 to be
> taken up. I bought a few of your over-valve plates some years back.
> I suppose what I should do is put out some clips demonstrating what I am
> talking about.
> It is not possible to build a harp without huge capital expenditure,
> unlike string instruments.
> Brass and woodwinds have a firmly established place, and have remained
> pretty much the same for a very long time.
> Diatonic harmonica needs to be popular, needs to establish itself in a
> perfected form.
> The day I hear OB/ODs used on a massively popular 'hit' record is the day
> I'll eat my words.
> Regards,
> Rick Dempster
>
> On Sun, 13 Feb 2022 at 02:33, Tom Halchak <info at xxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>> I am a little surprised at some of the comments that have been made in
>> this
>> thread.  Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion – even me – and
>> I
>> mean no disrespect toward anyone but me thinks there is a bit of Sour
>> Grapes going on here.  Readers may recall that Aesop’s Fable is about the
>> fox who, after finding himself unable to reach some grapes he wanted to
>> eat
>> disparaged them as being sour.  Here is specifically what I am referring
>> to.
>>
>> “I think they sound awful, and ultimately will do nothing for diatonic
>> harmonica.
>> Just my opinion.
>> RD”
>>
>> I find that comment to be absurd. There are countless harmonica players
>> that seamlessly and effectively incorporate Overblows and Overdraws into
>> their music.  To say that these highly skilled musicians sound awful is
>> pure nonsense.  OK RD, that is just your opinion.  I get it.  But….
>> Really!?!?!  Spend even a few minutes on YouTube and it will put that
>> argument to rest.
>>
>> On the subject of tone.  When a guitar player stretches his strings and
>> bends a note, do we say he has bad tone because it is producing a note
>> that
>> is technically a quarter step flat or a quarter step sharp?  Or how about
>> a
>> saxophone player to produces the same effect with a slight change in his
>> embouchure.  If Overblows and Overdraws “sound awful” because they are
>> slightly off pitch, what about just about every draw bend and blow bend?
>> How many harmonica players hit those tones spot on every time?   I guess
>> that also means that we should get rid of glissandos because they are way
>> out of tune and sound awful.  Are we saying that only people who play
>> every
>> note pitch perfect have good tone?  Are we also saying that chromatic
>> harmonicas, because they are pretty much designed to inhibit bending,
>> automatically have better tone that a diatonic harmonica?  I always
>> thought
>> that tone came mostly from the player and not the instrument itself.  The
>> ability to manipulate pitch on an instrument or in one’s voice is called
>> artistic expression.
>>
>> Lastly, I have had the opportunity to sit and chat with Will Scarlett, the
>> initial subject of this thread, specifically about his exclusive use of a
>> G
>> harp in his Hot Tuna days.  Without putting words in his mouth, even
>> though
>> the music he created is/was historic, he has told me that it was probably
>> a
>> mistake to go off the deep end and only use a G harp.  We all go off the
>> deep end at times.  If Will believed that using a G harp exclusively was
>> the best way to go, he would still being doing it today and he is not.
>>
>> --
>> *Tom Halchak*
>> *Blue Moon Harmonicas LLC*
>> *P.O. Box 14401 Clearwater, FL 33766*
>>
>> *www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com <http://www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com>**(727)
>> 366-2608*
>>
>

-- 
*Tom Halchak*
*Blue Moon Harmonicas LLC*
*P.O. Box 14401 Clearwater, FL 33766*

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