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DATE: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 10:38:20 CST
From: Jack Ely
Subject: Re: Sugar Blue's weapon of choice

FWIW - I don't have Sugar Blue's album but from most descriptions the
instrument on the cover must be a Hohner bass poly. Since there has been a
lot of postings about this harmonica I thought I might as well jump in there
too.

A few years ago, when I was preparing a beginners workshop on bass
harmonica, I made ASCII drawings of the Hohner, Huang and Tombo bass
harmonicas. For some reason I never held the workshop - maybe I never got my
confidence up. I was going to call it "The Bassics of Bass".

The following was created in 1989
------

#7 POLYPHONIA (HOHNER)

+-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-+
|D||D#|E||F||F#|G||G#|A||A#|B||C||C#|D||D#|E||F||F#|G||G#|A||A#|B||C||C#|D|
+-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-+

The Hohner #7 polyphonia, usually thought of as a special effect or novelty
instrument, can be used effectively for bass. The #7 is tuned from D to D in
the bass register. It has a range of two octaves. The layout is different
than more traditional bass harmonicas and perhaps this is why bass players
seldom, if ever, use it. It is layed out with the chromatic scale in line
(25 blow reeds on one deck) making rather awkward interval jumps. However,
once the intervals are learned for a particular bass line it can be played
in any key by simply moving up or down the instrument to the proper starting
point. Polyphonias are, by the way, the world's only self transposing
instruments.

Jack Ely - Columbus, Ohio --New Addr--> IMS_E~1.ode.ohio.gov