X-HARPS : Personal Experimental Harmonica Project

[dominico]

Hey there, I'm new to the forum, I have a lot of reading to catch up on!

This sounds very ambitious, but also very exciting!

Out of my diatonics I really wish I could bend from the 5 all the way down to the 4, and bend from the 4 all the way down to the flat 3.
A lot of guitar solos I try to track have those bends, I've considered changing my diatonic tuning to accomodate, but maybe X reeds are a better answer.

In a chromatic, I agree, if every single note had the option of being bendable draw note (without having to bend it to get the note you want) that would be harmonic utopia. Big bonus if it still fits in your pocket.

In your reed plate slider thread I described my attempt to build the "perfect diminished tuned harmonica", where every note could be a draw and every key would have the same breath pattern. If that breath pattern already feels familiar to a common diatonic position, even better.

[Brendan]

Yes, bending the 5 and 4 of the scale a wholetone are essential if you want to emulate guitar players...

Have you tried the Hohner XB-40? It will give you those wider bends. The intermediate semitone bends are trickier to control (similar to hole 2 on a Richter harp), but it can be done with practice.

It's sadly discontinued now, but can be found on eBay etc. It was only made in Richter tuning but can be retuned to other scales.

[Brendan]

I've continued experimenting with different designs for this project. There are so many theoretical ways to follow to achieve what I'm after, but none is easy! It's been a two year journey so far, and the stack of crazy-looking prototypes that have resulted surprises even me when I go back and look in the boxes. They all test a different idea, and most were only partial successes at best.

It's been a rollercoaster project, with Eureka moments and crushing disappointments in about equal measure! At some stage I'd like to do a video showing and explaining the different prototypes, but right now I'm too busy exploring new design ideas and testing against guitar solos.

I'm definitely making progress... Here's a recent video tracking a guitar bending in Albert King style. (Use headphones to hear the guitar and harp separately):

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4lycRPI ... l0NzU5d2dq

And here's a clip tracking the great man himself. (I had to pitch shift Albert's solo half an octave higher, because I only have one of these prototypes).

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4qOiWho ... hhZDM0cg==

I call this X-HARP #4, but in reality it's more like #24! With the first 20 I didn't post any test recordings.

It's not over yet, there are more ideas to test...

[Brendan]

A blues lick using electric guitar-style bends & vibrato, played on my latest experimental harmonica in this project:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C74yDwVo ... lpYzc4YXZk

[triona]

A blues lick using electric guitar-style bends & vibrato, played on my latest experimental harmonica in this project:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C74yDwVo ... lpYzc4YXZk

Is it a fully acoustic play?
Or did you use some electric / electronic amplification or even electronic effects for distortion of the sound in this recording?


dear greetings
triona

[Brendan]

I was playing through a hand-held mic into an effect that emulates a valve amplifier. It simply fattens the original harp signal: all the vibrato and bending comes from my mouth in combination with the harmonica.

[Brendan]

I've been continuing to explore this project using different harmonica platforms. Most recent are customised versions of plastic shell chroms like the Hohner CX12, Kongsheng KB12 and Easttop ET12, as well as the JDR Trochilus.

Here are a couple of clips using the Trochilus as my base platform, playing iconic guitar solos:

FREEBIRD - Lynard Skynard
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCm15zbu ... R1YnJpNGh0

COMFORTABLY NUMB - Pink Floyd
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DB2Ug--J ... J2cDlvcGZj

I find learning guitar solos is not only challenging and fun, but it also tells me what my X-HARP prototypes can do and what's still beyond them. That spurs on further developments

[Brendan]

Here's a new clip on the same X-Harp prototype #7 using the Trochilus as base platform: the iconic guitar solo from the Eagles' "Hotel California" (actually just the first half of it):

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDlDXkwo ... A5cGlxbQ==

I've always liked this solo but never thought of learning it, because the guitaristic bending is so intrinsic to its sound. Not just that, but the key centre regularly modulates in the tune - which means that where the bends occur in the scale shift as well. On a regular harp it's possible to get some of the bends but not all of them - regardless of what position or tuning you choose. Plus the solo sits occasionally on some chromatic notes that are not easy to get on a regular harp.

But when I tried it on my newest prototype I happily found that I COULD at last get all those nice bending licks in the different key centres, with very similar expression to the original solo. Even more than the other guitar solos I've learnt, this one tells me I'm on the right track with this long-running project

[mozharp]

This is very impressive and intriguing. Brendan’s playing is amazing, and I’m really curious about the instrument that makes those bends possible.