What Harp Do You Use?

The questions that come my way have to do with equipment and such, and I suppose which harp I use is the number one query.  Well, I gotta say up front that there is no PERFECT sound that all harp players agree on, nor should there be. It's like there's a sound in your head/heart/gut that you're trying to reach on the one hand and, on the other, what you can do and how you sound.

I've tried a ton of different harps and my little carrying case with a good range of harmonicas has a kind of odd range of types and brands. A few, like Big River Harps by Hohner, I don't keep within reach and are off on a shelf somewhere. I don't personally like the feel of the harp and the reeds and such are a bit recessed and make clean, natural blows and draw cumbersome for me. Another person's mileage may differ. If that was all one had to blow on, I'm sure one could adapt and conform to the feeling of the harp and the air space issues that I ran into. On the other hand, life is a bit short.

I don't usually find fault with a Hohner Marine Band, of course, and it has that sort of historical blues mojo. Having said that, I do see that in the more recent times I get a clunker now and then, one with whining and shrill or non-working reeds. That was unthinkable five years ago. It just didn't happen.  As far as I can tell, even though prices are going through the roof for harps the quality overview sucks and things are getting out of the factory that should have been tossed back in for repair or testing. So, if that happens to be your paying job in life, you'd better make sure your resume is up to date.

Lots of people love the Hohner Special 20's, although the diminished qualities evident in Hohner products these days can come through, they're not exactly terrible. They have to be babied a bit, which I don't want to think about when I'm playing.

Lee Oskars were once my unquestioned favorite to play. Loved the sort of mid and lower rumble and tone and have never been a guy who plays a lot on the higher end of the harp. I've heard, and only heard, things that suggest the quality, like Hohner, are suffering as of late. I suppose after the Marine Band gusto I have, I rarely ever find much wrong with a Lee Oskar.

Now, at the risk of being dumb, I have also played the Suzuki Promaster and the lesser-in-the-line Suzuki Bluesmaster. The Promaster everybody slobbers over because it's so much more expensive, but to me it's like blowing a brick. No life. No pizazz that you'll feel and hear with a Marine Band. The Bluesmaster, however, is one that I have in a C harp because Suzuki sent it to me some time ago in hopes I'd review it. I prefer the Bluesmaster to the Promaster anytime, and one thing I noticed is how I can sit in the back of a bus or on a bench and play very, very quietly and have the sound be full and not subject to choking attempts of reeds to vibrate. It's also the smoothest in terms of my mouth/feel as I'm trucking along playing. Unlike some, it also doesn't yank my mustache hair now and then and make my eyes pop open.

I haven't played the Bluesmaster in public in a band in a while but think I will at a jam/gig on Wednesday night just to see how it handles at full volume.

I hear good things about the Seydel (Heck, on Google it shows it was the favorite harp in Poland)(?) but don't have the $70+ bucks to toss down on one.

There is no "right" sound or "right" harp except the one that is for you to help get the sound out of your head and into the air. I'm always interested, however, in who likes what and why.

Bye Bye Bird

I bought one special harp after hearing this song -- the Hohner 364, I believe it is, because I dug the sound so much. The only problem was that the harp didn't come with even a modicum of extra talent, so I struggled through it as best I could.

When I got my harps back from their storage place in Ft. Worth thanks to my sister's continuing kindness in life, the first thing I did was pull out the 364 and play and sing this song. If all goes well, I'll be busking out on the streets again tomorrow, although anybody trying that in Houston knows it's not for money since most people smile and comment but pass by. It'll be to play.

Paging One Gibbs Slap

Ok, I totally clicked off the television thirty years ago only to somehow fall face first into things like NCIS, House and Bones.  And, of course, Craig Ferguson. But I'm already running off target. My point is, as much as I love acoustic blues harp it's a bit of a sacrilege to say that in this picture of harpist Sonny Terry with his long time partner Brownie McGee I'm convinced what was on Brownie's mind was the constant desire after hearing Terry's whooping and hollering and often nonstop playing to give his forced friend a Gibbs Slap.

I've had far less talented harp players sit in for a song with my band only to find they started blowing a note from the first of the song all the way through till a half-beat after the end. I know what it makes you feel like. Brownie handled it well, I suppose, knowing he had a harp genius sitting to his right -- he just wouldn't say diddley-squat to the guy on or offstage.

Juke Boy

Seems fitting since I'm staying in Houston for a while to mention a bluesman who played his music on a Fender Mustang -- a favorite guitar of mine in those long ago years thanks to the one owned by Alan House -- and a harp on the neck rack. He along with Lightnin Hopkins sort of solidified my early sense of the blues. In fact, when I was 13 I owned two albums -- one was Lightnin and the other was Ravi Shankar on the sitar. Ecclectic at best, eh?

Have a friend who saw Juke Boy back in those times but Juke Boy was not in the best of health. This clip from Swedish television happened in 1975 and, three years later, Juke Boy died in his apartment from cirrhosis of the liver at age 46. Unknown in most of Houston, he was a blue hero in Europe.

Gratitude

Got only one thing on my mind tonight -- a thank you.  Dr. Rick and the Burners invited me to sit in for several songs at their gig tonight here in Houston and, yes, I was honored. Fantastic band -- not blasting/muddled, but sharp and clear and just plain fantastic.

Dr. Rick has been extremely kind to me since I had a "coming out" party as a revived player at The Big Easy a few nights ago, and the invitation's just one example. And I can't say enough about the players. I'm used to running into some pretty severe ego measured in  pounds per square inch in bands and amongst musicians, but these were flat out the nicest people I could hope to paratroop down into.

They have a regular spot over at Papadeux here in Houston on Friday nights on Richmond for the next few weeks, and I canNOT resist telling you to make plans.

My Younger Days

Ok, one thing I love about the blues is when a great song just dovetails in with where I am at the moment -- usually standing more than neck deep in the swamp.

I went searching for Sonny Boy doing "My Younger Days" and, lo and behold, found it. So, from my favorite:

Yes -- with several blues geniuses playing along -- Willie Dixon who did the forward to my book on the blues, Sunnyland Slim who is a piano blues god for me and even Hubert Sumlin who was the guitarman behind Howlin' Wolf for several centuries.