CD: Irish Melodies for Tremolo Harmonica

[KCJiang]

Very glad to let you know that my CD "Irish Melodies for Tremolo Harmonica" is completed. You can go to my website www.kcjiang.com and cdbaby/cd/kcjiang to listen the samples.

I would like to thank all of you, through reading your articles I got the idea and knowledge to work on the CD. Special thanks to three board members, Tony (Higgins), Blackhawk and Byll, Tony and Blackhawk gave me a lot of encouragement. Byll gave me the knowledge about microphones and recording.

Without joining "C&F", my CD would never be produced. Dale, Thank You to creat this wonderful board that made my dream coming true

[SteveShaw]

Good work, KC! Any chance of telling us which tremolos you used? I use mostly 10-hole blues harp-type instruments myself but I do use a double-sided Echo for a few tunes. Some of the best Irish players swear by the Tombo Band deluxe models, and next time my Echos wear out I'll try some of those. I'm never happy with the fine-tuning or degree of tremolo of the Echos, so I mess around with them a lot and they don't sound anything like out-of-the-box harmonicas any more. I'm still using that Suzuki mic you sent me - it's my mic of choice all the time these days!

[KCJiang]

Hi! Steve:

Thanks and nice to hear from you.

I used Tombo 1722 for the recording. I have both 12 majors of Tombo 1722 and Tombo Band Delux. The 1722 has 22 hole-double reeds and has full three octaves, Tombo Band Delux has 21 hole-doulbe reeds and the B of the 3rd octave is not there. The price of the 1722 is almost double of the Tombo Band Delux and it is difficult to find all the 12 keys of Tombo 1722 even in Japan. I was lucky, last year, one of my friend's wife was in Japan and bought the 12 harmonicas for me, there is harmonica shop close to where she lived and the store is selling the full set of Tombo 1722. I like the Tombo 1722 and Tombo Band Delux both. Using the Tombo Band Delux for recording should be as good as Tombo 1722. Some of the harmonicas made in Europe (such as ECHO) has different tunning (Richter Tuned) from the tuning (Solo Tuned) of oriental made harmonicas. I play solo tuned harmonica for long time. When I tried ECHO, I had hard time to get used to.

I am glad that the Suzuki mic is useful for you. Keep in touch!

[SteveShaw]

That Richter tuning is a pain, that's for sure. Why Hohner think that someone playing a tremolo harp needs a blues tuning is anyone's guess. Like I said, I mess around with my tunings, and I convert the Echos to Paddy Richter tuning (which means raising the 3-blow by a whole tone - both reeds in the pair, of course!) I don't know why I stick with them really. I've got quite good at flipping the harp over for a key-change without a break, which is handy especially when you have a mic in one hand. One day I'll be on those Tombos.

[KCJiang]

I agree with Steve, sometimes we need to bend the key to play Richter tuned tremolo harmoncia.

As for Tombo 1521 and 1722, the tone of Tombo 1722 is brighter than that of 1521. Also, it is more easy to play the 3rd octave of 1722 than that of 1521. I also have two Tombo 3121 (D and Eb), 3121 is also a good tremolo, I don't play the 3121 often and cannot judge 3121 that much yet.

Hohner has Celeste Tremolo for 12 keys. I have several of them. Celeste Tremolo is a also reasonable tremolo. Both the Tombo 3121 and Celeste Tremolo are made in China now. 1980s, I bought several "Made in China" tremolo harmonicas, they were not good. But the quality of Tombo 3121 and Celeste Tremolo are much better than those ones I bought in 1980s.

We cannot find Tombo tremolo harmonica sold in US, because Oskar is Tombo's solo USA representative. As long as Oskar doesn't sell the Tombo tremolo and nobody can sell.

[SteveShaw]

We cannot find Tombo tremolo harmonica sold in US, because Oskar is Tombo's solo USA representative. As long as Oskar doesn't sell the Tombo tremolo and nobody can sell.

That is a ridiculous situation that has been going on for years. You could sort of understand The Lee Oskar company not wanting Tombo to sell its 10-hole harps (the Folk Blues is almost identical anyway to the Lee Oskar harps), but it's completely beyond me that the best tremolos money can buy are not allowed to be sold either. Tremolos and blues harps simply do not compete with each other !