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Written by S.o.S.
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UPDATE: 24 hours until we leave, and 31 hours until we arrive.
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This is really interesting as there seems to be a lot of interest in the SCX. This is very helpful, as is the idea of going to a customised used?
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Yeah, that's a Koster, 10 hole, richter tuned Chromatic, made in Germany, right after the war. It's exactly like the first Chromatic I ever had when I was nine or ten. ( I even have the original box) Don't remember what I ever did with the one I wore out as a kid but I got this one on ebay mostly for sentimental reasons. It's got a cracked comb (and I don't Care  ) needs some attention and that too will probably never happen. I think it's just fun to look at.
Thanks to enlight me!
Cheers,
Miquel.
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Unless you want a custom harmonica, the Seydel is your best bet.
Are you dead set on whole tone?
I, too, play guitar in those styles and find the harmonica to be a great melody instrument, but find other tunings to be more to my liking.
If you want to buy a "student model" to see if you like whole tone, I have a 10 hole instrument (Hohner 260) I would be willing to part with. I retuned it myself!
Gary
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Suzuki SCX-56.
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I think it's just fun to look at.
Through watery eyes  
Ray 
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Won't be long now
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Reeds,
I intended the question to be explicit. Do you hear what you read before you play it, and which do you play? It's the kind of question someone who never read music, someone much like myself, would ask. I'd still like to know.
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Hi folks
I am new to this site. After years of playing guitar (jazz, rock, recently bluegrass) I have decided to take up
harmonic in part due to hand problems I have recently been experiencing. I have always loved the sound of the
harp and its portability. I am looking for advice on what to buy. I have decided that I definitely want a
chromatic harp with wholetone tuning. I see that Seydel has a Chormoatic De Lux that fits the bill but
by price it appears to be a student model. So I am wondering where to get a better chromatic in wholetone
tuning. Also any other advice you have with regards to getting started will be much appreciated. I learned,
after years of playing guitar, that it is easier to learn good technique than to unlearn bad technique.
Hello and thanks!
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I have heard Mr. Watkins. There are several tunes in Ebm that he plays in Dm. In fact, I have heard him do a number of tunes not in their original keys. He DOES play PYANO, so there must be some reason for his switching keys. I think that the one tune (don't recall the name right now...maybe take-5?), is god awful in Ebm and easy in Dm. But that may not be the reason?
smo-joe.......... I don ha to cho ju any steenkin badges
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QUESTION "IF playing by ear is making the music you hear in your head come out of your instrument, regardless of how it got there, would not most players play by ear?"
ANSWER
Examples of why reading music is good for me:
I've got the complete vocal score with piano accompaniment for the Broadway show, "Guys and Dolls". I can have a great time flipping through that book, playing vocal lines, and ripping parts out of the piano parts. The piano introductions have variations that are not in the vocal lines.
I just bought a newly released piano version of 13 pieces by Piazzolla. Besides being a good road map through music I've heard before, there is music I've never heard before.
I've got two thick, heavy, rat-whacking volumes of ALL of Kurt Weill's stage music that was published in his lifetime. There is just a slight, small smidgen of a chance of finding something I never heard before in those two volumes.
The radio today played Samuel Barber's "Knoxville, Summer of 1915". I've heard it before, but do you think I know the music well enough to whistle the thing. Of course not....
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31 hours until my daughter and I leave home headed for Williamsburg VA....we'll arrive in 38 hours from right now !!!!
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@ KC_Liaw,
I would be waiting anxiously to learn about the outcomes of your experiment. I reckon, the tone is muted in the last chamber because of air leak and not the chamber profile. I think so because, if chamber profile were to impact I would expect that to happen in the larger chambers rather than the smaller ones. However, from Vern's post, it turns out that neither is correct!
@ Vern,
Firstly, many thanks for replying to my question.
I see what you mean about horizontal milling. Makes the perspective clearer and explains the rounded back wall of the chamber that it is not done on purpose but is an outcome of horizontal milling. Also, you are right about end mill cutter on vertical miller. That is what he is using. Also he has demanded me to get two end mill cutters, one to create the longer grue and the other to cut the taper ramp.
I borrowed the idea of going for a simple chamber from Suzuki Grégoire Maret Signature Series. The comb is a plastic one and has plain and simple cuboidal chambers without any taper ramps. (I have attached a picture...
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Cool I'll look for "Low Down". Of course that Eb position on a C Legato works out to C on an A LeGato, and I just happen to own an A LeGato too. And for Gnarly that works out to key of Bb on his G LeGato, also a cool key!
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Yeah, that's a Koster, 10 hole, richter tuned Chromatic, made in Germany, right after the war. It's exactly like the first Chromatic I ever had when I was nine or ten. ( I even have the original box) Don't remember what I ever did with the one I wore out as a kid but I got this one on ebay mostly for sentimental reasons. It's got a cracked comb (and I don't Care ) needs some attention and that too will probably never happen. I think it's just fun to look at.
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Theoretical question...but IF you only had £150 ($225 USD) to spend on a new harmonica, what harp would get your hard-earned pennies? And why? I would not buy a new harmonica, I'd call dick gardner, or email him and ask what he has available. IF he has something interesting, he'll tweak it around a bit and you'll save yourself the usual path ....which is 1. you buy an instrument 2. you have to make it playable either yourself or have a horn-smasher do it for you. You never know what Dick has lurking in his pile of harmonicas...
What he said.
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I might update my chord harmonica. I just looked at Suzuki and Hohner listings, and they're more than the limit. It would have to be KaineZ/Victory/Huang sort.
Tom
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IF you could come up with another 75.00 you could buy the super 64 that Brendan customized for me. It has a short throw button with, I think, Suzuki plates and wooden covers.Straght tuned. Just thought I would throw that in the mix.
More than likely Hering plates. Suzukis are cross tuned.
Tom
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Hmm....considering I only have one harp at the moment....that is a tough one. Either a Hohner 280 or a CX-12 tenor would be my choice. At the moment, I think I'd take the CX-12 tenor since I would rather get a Super 64 as opposed to the 280.
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I guess we we're still in the BETA mode.
As far as I know everything is working now.
After you look the site over, check out the directions video.
Thanks to my friend Rick, It's a real piece of work.
http://www.harpixie.com
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Jazz writes:
"I'm finding that there are some very slick blues GUITAR licks - especially in the turnarounds - some of my favorite licks from Buddy Guy or Johnny Winter that I've always wished I could play on harmonica, that are just flowing out of the LeGato in Eb. Makes me realize that great as those licks sound on guitar, they're probably pretty easy on guitar. And now they're easy on harmonica too!"
Yeah, in the short time I played mine before sending it off get corrected that's the first stuff I could get pretty fast - those pantatonic guitar riffs. And that's definatly what I'll start out with when I get in back. This is also the kind of riffing that I could bring to a gig in pretty short time. The other thing is Eb, though not a real popular key for blues is a really cool key to fool around in. Let me suggest you maybe get ahold of "Low Down" by Kim Wilson (Eb) and try playing around over that.
Sam
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To venture outside of the harp field, if I may.
A perfect example of what you're talking about (ear playing), is my favorite subject, Bix Beiderbecke. He not only played incredible cornet, but he composed and mostly taught himself piano as well.
His parents sent him to a piano teacher who became exasperated at young Bix's reluctance to learn to read. Bix would ask the teacher to play the piece for him to give him an idea of how it should sound. Next lesson, he would play it back, note for note, with "improvements". The teacher got wise to his reading skills when he inserted wrong notes in the lesson. Bix would include these notes when he returned the following week.
He also flunked his first try at getting a union card when he was older, because of his poor reading skills. He got booted out of the Jean Goldkette Orchestra once for the same reason.
Some biographers say he was just lazy in that regard (learning to read music); others have suggested obsessive compulsive disorder as a possible cause.
This is not to suggest any of the above applies to Toots.
BTW There is a fictionalized version...
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CX-12 Jazz or CX-12 Bb or Bb 270 and 2 Suzuki Mangi Diatonics or Deluxe 270
Sam
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Danny: You can ignore my previous post. I got to it through your New Harmonica site.
Regards,
Gene Dodson
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Maybe I'm mistaken, but I was under the impression that he doesn't read music or play from music. I think I've read that somewhere but it wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong - just ask my wife
Barry
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IF you could come up with another 75.00 you could buy the super 64 that Brendan customized for me. It has a short throw button with, I think, Suzuki plates and wooden covers.Straght tuned. Just thought I would throw that in the mix.
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Speaking of an unstable note. The MK I bought from Blackie has a sour note on the bottom. I can't draw without it choking. Anyone want to take a chance on making sure it's all in good shape. I pay cash, well, money order. I'm just too old to learn all that stuff.
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I once read that, when asked by an interviewer about his inability to read music, Toots replied, "I always know what I'm playing," or something to that effect. I assume he meant the key of the song.
I found the interview where that's from:
Well not as fast as the guys that go to the conservatory but I know every note that I play, and I know to what chord it belongs. And if I have something, for instance for a movie score, if you know.. its the feeling I project that the producers are after. And if they know... the harmonica is so easy you can hold a phone with one hand and play the harmonica with the other hand so we rehearse on the phone sometimes with people like John Williams I've done that, and (??name) and if its really intricate to read then they can send me the music a couple of days before.
I don't take that to mean he can't read music -- only that he doesn't read as fast as "the guys that go to the conservatory".
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The Pro 64 (280) is a good harmonica in that range - as is anything in the SCX line - and you can get close to the CX-12 of your choice in that range (I think the gold and the jazz are more than $225 now).
Of these I wuld probably get an SCX 56. But I do like the standard 280 - this is of course only if I already had a cx-12. Everyone should have at least one cx-12 if only because it's easy to play with one hand
dt
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Just a sec guys, I think you're missing a superb opportunity
buried in the advise already given here!!!
The need to cut up Carlsberg cans for harmonica tools
smacks of a great excuse for beer swillin to me! and all
in the pursuit of the perfect harp (well, thats what i'm going to tell the good lady).
Life is suddenly getting better and better.
Hic!
Cheers
Gary
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Theoretical question...but IF you only had £150 ($225 USD) to spend on a new harmonica, what harp would get your hard-earned pennies? And why?
I would not buy a new harmonica, I'd call dick gardner, or email him and ask what he has available. IF he has something interesting, he'll tweak it around a bit and you'll save yourself the usual path ....which is
1. you buy an instrument
2. you have to make it playable either yourself or have a horn-smasher do it for you.
You never know what Dick has lurking in his pile of harmonicas...
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This was a good exercise. Between the two online sellers I looked at, there is a significant gap between modestly priced ($110–190) harmonicas and the next level ($350 up). There is very little choice in between. Around $225 seems to be a no-man's land.
Tom
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I can play by ear but I find it less painful if I put the harmonica in my mouth - get a better sound that way as well! 
Thanks, Al. Even though I didn't say people could make jokes about this deadly serious topic , I needed a good laugh.
Barry
P.S. By the way, if you screw up a piece you play by ear, is it aural sex?
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Danny: Would you check that website again? I don't find anything at harpixie.com.
Regards,
Gene Dodson
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Here is an example of a well jazz standard that is quite difficult to "fake". The descending, often chromatic, lines offer a challenge to musicians. I think with this one, if one were on a gig -- and an "ear" player, one would be glad to know at least the Key everyone else was playing in! Had he never heard it before, do you think Stevie Wonder might want to listen to this a couple of times before tackling it? Jim Dee Dee Bridgewater "Midnight Sun". (Visuals are quite stunning, too.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF0othfEUZU
yeah, that's a great arrangement... it's helpful to me to consider not "what key is it in", but "what key is it in at a certain point?" . Knowing that it's based in Ab won't really help you as much as in a lot of other tunes.
It goes thru the same chords in a bunch of keys... three, I think....
I haven't heard that one for decades, thanks for pointing it out...
I think the cool sound is the #11... aside from that it's going down in whole...
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I have had my eye on the SCX-56 for some time . . .
Well within your price range.
Gary
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I might consider a CX-Jazz meself! I actually like the looks of those things.
(Then I'd automatically be a good jazz player, aye! )
@ge
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Super 64 @ £146.99 at Harmonicas Direct. Because I like my Super 64X so much it's got to be close.
Ray
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Theoretical question...but IF you only had £150 ($225 USD) to spend on a new harmonica, what harp would get your hard-earned pennies? And why?
AL
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I can play by ear but I find it less painful if I put the harmonica in my mouth - get a better sound that way as well!
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I think Age owns one.
Tom
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Quite a glitch. But there is a way around them. You'll see, in words below the links, prompt called Harmonica.hk.Product. I can click on it, and get pictures of logos to click on to look at their offerings. The links above that, in little tabs, are inoperable.
Tom
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Sorry for my ignorance.... 
Cheers,
Miquel.
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The 270 wooden comb chambers have that shape because they are made on a special-purpose horizontal milling machine.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milling_machine to understand the differences between horizontal and a vertical milling machines.
On the horizontal mill, there can be a separate cutter for each chamber, all rotating on the same spindle. The axis of that spindle is parallel to the long dimension of the comb. All 12 of the chambers on top or bottom can be cut at the same time with a single pass. This is very efficient. It probably would not work as well with aluminum as it does with wood. Hohner's mill is probably designed and dedicated to the special purpose of making wooden combs.
Your machinist is contemplating using a general-purpose vertical mill. The cutter (called an "end mill" ) will rotate on an axis perpendicular to the long dimension of the comb. It cuts the chambers one at a time.
A few years ago I designed a comb that employed a CNC vertical mill to produce over 100 stainless steel combs. It is based on a very old Hohner design, also used for many years by Richard Farrell for machined and...
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Here is an example of a well known jazz standard that is quite difficult to "fake". The descending, often chromatic, lines offer a challenge to musicians. I think with this one, if one were on a gig -- and an "ear" player, one would be glad to know at least the Key everyone else was playing in! Had he never heard it before, do you think Stevie Wonder might want to listen to this a couple of times before tackling it?
Jim
Dee Dee Bridgewater "Midnight Sun". (Visuals are quite stunning, too.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF0othfEUZU
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BUT: I don't know, nothing seems to be in stock... No matter what quantity I'd like to order. Fake?
Or somebody bought the whole shop?
Quote:
Products marked with *** dont exist in desired quantity in our stock.
You can buy them anyway and check the quantity we have in stock for immediate deliver in the checkout process.
Would have ordered the WH10 immediately...
roady43
This is the reason why I started the this thread. I don't mind waiting for it but I just wanted to see if anyone else had successfully dealt with these guys. some of the non working menu links on the website make me worry.
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When I was kid, I thought it should have been "Bewitched, Bewothered and Bewildered." I still call it that.
Tom
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"Aural memory-- I think everyone who can hear has it or you would not remember what someone just said to you."
I have that problem sometimes. 
There is such a thing as Braille music notation; but in a quick scan of the Wikipedia article on it, I didn't find anything that indicated that blind people like Stevie could read and play at the same time.
Tom
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Hello all! I am back with more story. My machine shop man says that the key way profiles of the chambers in the comb are a bit too complicated to machine. Now, I know they are not, but in all fairness, I am guessing he means that it requires more than one type of cutter. Therefore, I suggested, why not try a plain and simple key way without any tapers and various holes in it. Just the way they are in a diatonic harmonica. The discussion was diverted to the acoustics of the key ways and the machine shop guy thinks that the shape of the chamber contributes to the tonal color. I did not agree and maintained that the reed produces the sound and the use of chamber is only to contain the air and provide room for the reed to vibrate. Also, my argument is that there were a few tapers given in the chamber to support the thin profile of the chamber walls because they were done on wood and wood could break at that thickness. My request to any one of...
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Quite awhile back we discussed "ear playing" and playing by reading the notes. I don't recall the names, if any, of the pro chromatic players who play or played by ear. Are, or were there, any?
Stevie Wonder most certainly plays by ear.
I see discussion about perfect pitch and aural memory, but I don't think it is that complicated. PP has nothing to do with playing back music unless you are singing a capella. Aural memory-- I think everyone who can hear has it or you would not remember what someone just said to you. I think playing by ear has to do with : 1) memorizing how the song sounds (ie can you hum, whistle or sing it accurately?) and 2) fine motor skill muscle memory, and as individuals we develop ability at different rates.
I presume everyone who is reading this who can play the Star Spangled Banner (or your own country's national anthem) by ear. If you can do it, then you play by ear. If you cannot play other songs by ear, then you probably have not tried to or...
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