The Steel Guitar Forum

When I was a kid, we had one of those old RCA record players that played 45s. You could load a pile of 'em on there, and they'd sequence through one at a time until they were done playing. Consequently, I spent alot of my paper route money on 45s. I was (and still am) a huge fan of the original Lovin' Spoonful, and purchased their singles as soon as they were released. When I flipped this one over to the B-side, it changed my life:

Uh, here's that B-side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11-YxOGJ6Bs

I had thought John Lennon's tootin' on Love Me Do and There's A Place and such, or Brian Jones' early work were the at's cass until I heard Night Owl Blues.

So.... those of us that play Harmonica , What are you playing?
I have several Hohner Diatonics' for the usual cross harp keys. My main Harp is a Hohner Larry Adler Professional 16. But, I have my eye on a Hohner Super 64 Performance Chromatic. Just have to take a look at the economics of it $400.00 is average price that I can find..... and the Adler sounds good enough. Maybe for Christmas...LOL

I’ve been playing Lee Oskar’s since the 80’s. Seems like I’ve had some quality issues with them lately. I have a few Suzuki’s. They seem like a good value.
In the 60’s and 70’s I played Hohner Marine Bands and Special 20’s. They would crap out pretty quick, but were the standards back then. Never did like the Hohner Blues Harps. Thin reeds, they’d be toast after one gig.

Special 20's always seem to last for me. I believe you're correct on the Blues / Marine Hohners.... they tend to crap out pretty quick. They get where they just are not responsive.
Spiers and Danneckers are nice but very pricey for a diatonic

I don't really play diatonic harps but I have a huge collection of chromatics and have been playing both chromatic and guitar since I was a little kid. These days I lean towards jazz, lots of examples of my playing at our website: https://slimandpenny.com

G Strout: The Super 64 would definitely be a step up, stronger sound and more airtight. There are so many choices these days. If you're looking for a real bargain, the Easttops tend to be quite good for the money, well made and very similar to the Suzukis... One word of caution: while the newer and more airtight models are a pleasure to play, they tend to be more finicky when it comes to windsaver issues. Lately I've been playing the cheap Hohner Discovery just so I don't have to spend so much time with the axe on the repair bench -- it's only a 12-holer and isn't quite as loud as the more expensive models, but I play amplified (when not recording) and it sounds great.

- Slim

Been playing Hohner Marine Band and (the old style) Blues Harps for 50 yrs. now. Been playing sax for almost as long but have always considered myself a harp player first. I envy Slim's dexterity on the Chromatic but I'm kinda lazy and always found it easier to play the in-between notes on saxophone when I need them. On harp, I do my own customizing, reed replacement and build up my own harp mics. I've found that old tube amps that work well for harmonica also work well for lap steel.

Bill Sinclair wrote:Been playing Hohner Marine Band and (the old style) Blues Harps for 50 yrs. now. Been playing sax for almost as long but have always considered myself a harp player first. I envy Slim's dexterity on the Chromatic but I'm kinda lazy and always found it easier to play the in-between notes on saxophone when I need them. On harp, I do my own customizing, reed replacement and build up my own harp mics. I've found that old tube amps that work well for harmonica also work well for lap steel.

That's very cool Bill. And I'm having a good time imagining you with your sax in one hand and harp in the other, hitting the in-between notes on the sax .

That's a great harp case there, Bill!

I've dabbled in Chicago blues harp for as long as I can remember, and love Little Walter and Junior Wells. I play marine bands and special 20s.

I sometimes play pedal steel and harp at the same time, say on some Neil Young or Bob Dylan numbers, but prefer playing blues crossharp when I put on my harp rack. I've just ordered the Rackit from Blows Me Away, which is a harp mic contained in a cover that you put in a rack and that simulates the cupping of your hand for that distorted Chicago sound: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/rackit.html

Can't wait to put it into action!

I voted other.

I played a harmonica once, by mistake.

I’m the steel player in the band… and also always the one who gets to tell the person with the harmonica, who wants to “sit in”, to get lost
Chromatic harmonica, now that’s a different story!

I was blown away when I first heard Night Owl Blues.

Cartwright Thompson wrote:I’m the steel player in the band… and also always the one who gets to tell the person with the harmonica, who wants to “sit in”, to get lost

🤣🤣

I was lucky to go to high school with a couple of great harpests.
What they did was soak their harps in water to make the reeds easier to bend.
With the higher end harps, soaking them in water doesn't make the comb swell up, and hurt the lips, like a Marine Band.
This was a big J. Geils song back in the day featuring Magic Dick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSs12nBLquc
A live one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0q2Vy3fx2I

Yeah that was Richard Salwitz playing harp (also known as Magic Dick) Not much of a Chromatic player but a great blues player. Here's what he is up to now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxAZ3YyjtPg

The singer has an interesting guitar style.

Thank you, Señor Strout. You were so fast and that was so nice.

Cartwright Thompson wrote:I’m the steel player in the band… and also always the one who gets to tell the person with the harmonica, who wants to “sit in”, to get lost
Chromatic harmonica, now that’s a different story!

Cartwright, I'm the first to admit that harp players can be as bad as banjo, sometimes worse, and a guy walking towards the stage, with a harp in hand always causes the band to mutter "oh christ" . Because I'm the steel player AND the harp player in the band, I get to tell them to get lost.
But I'd have to add, steel guitar rag has the same effect on me as banjo or an approaching harmonica player. . .

At least it's not a banjo

I spent most of the last 10 years trying to learn to play pedal steel, and have either given up, or am taking a sabbatical from it - I just never hit the point where I could fairly effortlessly improvise over chord changes, or in and around the melody. I've been able to do that on harmonica for many years. I guess I missed that, so about 2 years ago I went back to my harmonicas and started really focusing on Chicago amped blues style. Along the way I have learned how little I really knew about playing blues, and have been seriously working on beefing up my skills, and adding more variety to my "improvised" riffs, along with getting gear that suits the style.

I played Special 20's for at least 20 years. Now I mostly play Hohner Rocket Amps. I've tried Siedels and hated them. Others seem to love them? Rockets cost a bit more than Special 20's, but I love the rounded corners and ease of disassembly and reassembly for cleaning/repair. And, with the Sp 20 and the Rockets, I love the recessed reed plates - no metal edge sliding along my lips!

Lately I've started playing what is often called the "Parrott" tuning - where you retune the 7 draw a half step lower. This allows for a killer blow-bend on 7, and some great blues licks, but kills the C-major scale in that range! Todd Parrott is a big promoter of this tuning, but readily states he did not invent it.

I currently have put together a 4-person blues band that has me singing (would prefer not, but no one else stepped up to the plate) and playing harmonica along with guitar, drums, and bass. No gigs allowed yet in the region due to covid, but hopefully soon!

I just participated in the poll and thought I'd ask a harmonica / lap steel question - so like the old saying "a contractor sees every problem as a nail" I tend to "hear" harmonica no matter what I do.

I have always looked at a lap steel as tuned kinda like a harmonica - with the 135135 major chord (blow notes aka 1st position) and the 6's and other stuff we add to our tunings as "special features".

BUT - I rarely play in 1st position. The blues I hear in my head is always west coast jump blues (Wm Clarke, Rick Estrin, Rod Piazza etc... with some of the masters, your Big's and Little's, I & II's) So I wrote out the harp's draw notes for the first time in 25+ years and realized I had a Beautiful 9th Tuning!!!
Draw notes from bottom are 5-1-3-5-b7-9-3-5-b7-9! or on a C harp: DGBDFABDFA

How did I not ever realize this? (it's because I learned to play by ear the way we all did back in the day.)

I was already trying to learn one of the classic 9th tuning but this sorta freaked me out because I hadn't "seen" it before. And when I realized EVERYTHING I listen to is right there - it literally has to be because we don't play blows and draws at the same time, and no need changing positions, unless I want to. (not everything translates; shakes, tone etc and I wouldn't want it to) What it did though was open up an entire new pocket of notes.

I searched the forum and hadn't seen this brought up before - so I was wondering if anyone else realized this and why they didn't tell me? I'm referring to it in my transcription as an HLS9 until I find who made it famous (if they ever did)

I had thought John Lennon's tootin' on Love Me Do and There's A Place and such...

Here is a John Lennon impersonation by Todd Rundgren's Utopia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ldLwavOp6E