Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

I got my Power Draw in the mail earlier and it's really amazing for playing in the top end! But I primarily play Paddy Richter because I don't play a lot of blues (although it's great for blues!) and I need that clean 2nd of the scale because I play it very often and hate having to bend to it every time. After staring at the Power Bender, Power Draw, Paddy Richter, and Wilde Rock tunings for the past 2 hours...I realize why they all exist! There is just no good way to get ALL of the benefits without sacrificing something! Power draw with a paddified 3 Blow I think is the closest, but then you can't play the major 7th (F#) on a C harp in the middle register (it is there in the top register!). You could country tune the 5 draw, but it takes away from the cool sound of wailing on the flat 7th when you have to bend to it. If you paddify the Wilde Tuned harp you completely lose the Major 4 chord.

If they had a Lucky 13 harp configurator though, I think you could combine the best of all of them with the following tuning. The top 10 holes (4-13)are paddified Wilde Rock tuning with richter tuning in the low 3 holes. It basically makes a double Paddy Tuned Wilde Rock harp in the top 10 holes but gives you 3 major 4th combinations in the low end (2 are inversions) while still giving access to the major 7th in the middle and top register. Unfortunately, none of the luck 13s are close enough to retune to the tuning below without major surgery! Maybe someday I'll Frankenstein one though! What do you think?

CEG CEACEEACEA
DGB DGBDFGBDGC

Depends what you call 'major surgery'. That looks to me like a pretty easy change from a Lucky 13 in PowerDraw tuning: only 3 reeds to change. If you develop the skills it would take under 5 minutes.

Certainly the major 7th in cross harp would be available as a partial bendbin the middle octave, but not easy to get in tune at speed. For the criteria you are after, I'd recommend a Paddy version of PowerBender instead.

Yes, the Paddy Power Bender looks like a great option now that you say that. I think I'll get one ordered! Thanks Brendan!

Paddy Powerbender is a nice tuning! I've been playing around with it during the spring, and I'm coming to really like it. There are several nice positions, and I really prefer the top octave to the Richter one.

I never tried a Paddy Powerdraw, but thinking about it I realize that for 4th position minor tunes this could have some advantages to the Paddy Powerbender:
* There are more of the large Paddy chords at the bottom, including the major parallel.
* The middle root note is a bendable draw.
* Overall more familiar to a Paddy player.

Some other positions might not be as nice, but this particular one looks good.

What do you guys think?

Paddy Power Bender and Paddy Power Draw - are these tunings ready to order OOTB? Or are these individually retuned ones?


dear greetings
triona

You'd have to do the retune to Paddy, but it's only two reeds and quite easy.

Thanks.
For experimentation with quite similar tuning variations like this, your modular harp would be an ideal instrument. Do you intend to keep on the idea? I would like this very much. I had been thinking about suggestions for some improvements as well.


dear greetings
triona