Terry was also the player who inspired me to buy my first Hohner Golden Melody back in 2020. People were telling me how extremely different the tuning was going to sound compared to my first harmonicas, the Hohner Special 20. But in reality, the harp sounded very similar with minor differences in its timbre, not the tuning.
Ever since then, I absolutely love to play any genre, but especially the blues, on them. Marine Band players would tell me all the time that my Golden Melodies are unfit for blues or even a band setting and that I should switch to the Marine Band because it was what the old guys used. Now you partially know why I have so much hatred for Marine Band players (the other reasons are that they are very gatekeepy when it comes to tuning and combs, even to the point where they’ve tried to cancel me for calling them out). I have also played Suzuki Bluesmasters and they sound pretty much identical to the Golden Melody to my ears. Nobody has complained about me playing them for country and gospel, but it’s really weird how I advocated so much that I should be free to play whatever I want, but these people tried everything to shut me down.
Indeed! Tharpe was awesome!
Hey. I tried to contact Todd about a month ago on his page (http://www.toddparrott.com/), but haven’t gotten a response. I noticed the page hasn’t been updated for 2024. Is he not using that page anymore? Thanks
The best way to contact him for lessons is through Facebook Messenger. That’s what I did in order to start taking lessons from him.
Thanks for the quick response.
I got mine from Will Wilde I saved the box it looks like he may have packed it himself. Love it!
Hey Luke quick question. So I turned 45 yesterday (I feel 75… hard living 
) and I’m gonna buy myself a birthday gift. I know the 1847 is a superior harp obviously as far as responsiveness, as you said. There is a $30 price difference so my question for you is with all things being equal, if the extra $30 isn’t a deal breaker, is the difference in responsiveness and tone enough to justify it in your mind for the Wilde tuned?
Disregard my last question Luke about should I get the 1848 or the session steel.
As a matter of fact I didn’t even end up going with the Wilde tunes but I got the 1847 original powerbender in A.
I decided to go with powerbender for a few reason that I’ll share now. I compared the tuning charts of both first. I noticed there are actually only 4 or 6 holes that are different on them and they are on 5,6 and 7 if memory serves. The Wilde tuned harp has several holes that have the same note in them. For example the E in the 5&6 hole blow. Being a pedal steel player, I viewed this like having the same pull on multiple knee levers and/ or pedals. There may be a logical reason for it but you can get the same thing another way with a bit more effort. I’m attaching a pic of both tunings.
Secondly I feel the powerbender tuning offers some better chordal options available. For example what is normally the 5 hole blow on Richter is the 5 hole draw on the powerbender. So if you play the 4&5 draws over the 4. Holes you are gonna get a real nice 2/9th voicing if memory serves correctly. There’s a video on you tube where a guy plays some nice
Chordal stuff on the powerbender.
Lastly I know the Wilde tuning was developed to be played primarily in 2nd position. Brendan has a video where he plays the powerbender in 11 different positions on 1 harmonica. Obviously I can’t do that right now but to k ow it’s available on there is a bonus for me. Can Willa tuning so that? Probably I dunno but the powerbender seems to have been developed with a whole lot of thinking and research in mind. I’m sure Will put some time into developing the Wilde rock tuning but Brendan developed the powerbender over years upon years of playing and trial and error.
Anyway I should get it either Saturday or Monday so I’ll keep you posted. I got it through rockin Ron’s for $109 including shipping.
Right on @MorrisMusic513 - I do own a PowerBender…somewhere…lol. Never quite got into it on the first go round. As I’ve mentioned the only alternate tunings I’m using regularly right now are Parrott-Tuned, Country-Tuned, and Natural Minor.
I think you’ll be happy with the quality of the 1847 Classic. Keep us posted how ya like it!
So I got my Seydel 1847 powerbender harmonica today. Let me say wow! These harmonicas are built with quality craftsmanship. I’ve not played any of the “high end” Hohners but I imagine this is the way the MBD and crossover feel.
I really like how the holes on the Seydel appear to be rounded slightly. The size of the harp makes my embouchure more open and therefore my notes sound better.
Now for playability…… it plays fantastic. Every draw bend all the way up the harp was smooth as butter…… until I reached holes 9&10. These holes would squeak when I would try to get the draw bends. I didn’t immediately open the harp up because I know bending those high notes could take some learning and adjusting. I did however eventually open the harp up and adjusted the gapping on 9&10 and now they bend just fine. I notice the reed lates have initials and a date on them which is awesome. That makes me feel good knowing a human assembled the harp rather than a cookie cutter. 
These harps have a very nice warm tone. This is the first wooden comb I’ve had and I really like the feel. The sandwich style of the harmonica does not agree with my mustache so I’m gonna have to trim the facial hair. I would like to try a session steel next to this one.
The tuning seems very intuitive. I couldn’t tell you what notes are where but I was able to play amazing Grace as usual on the low octave and then jump up and play it with no issues on the high octave. I was also able to play tunes that I couldn’t play on the richter; somewhere over the rainbow and Georgia on my mind. These tunes require either an overblow on Richter or what I usually do; play them in my country tuned harp. Past that I’ve figured out a few nice licks on the tuning and I love the emotion I can get with the draw bends all the way up. Beyond that I’m afraid my abilities limit what I can do at the moment.
The only thing I miss with this tuning is the trill you get with the 4&5 drawing the richter tuning (I think you call it a trill) when you go back and forth on the draw notes. You still have that on the Wilde tuning so that is the one con I have on this harp.
All in all I understand why these harps cost more than the SP20 and Manjis that I have. If you have the cash I would totally recxomend this harp and this tuning.
Next step is to get Brendan’s book so I can take advantage of this tuning.
Anyway that’s my thoughts on the Seydel 1847 classic powerbender Hope it helps someone.
Hey Luke…. So I got a Wilde rock tuned harp (an 1867) and I absolutely love it. I think I enjoy it even more so than the powerbender I got not long ago but they are very similar.
Anyway I had a quick question for you…. Did you get the squealing/ high pitch squealing at all when bending the higher notes? I got an Ab harp so it would not be so high and when I try to get the lat semi tone bend on hole 7 it always squeals hole 9 was squealing but I think that one was due to technique. I can’t get hole 10 to bend yet but that may just be due to it being so high and the reed being so short but hole 7 is perplexing me.
Curious what you think it might be? Reed hitting the plate maybe???
Anyway love the harp besides the squeak issue. Let me n ow your thoughts. Thanks!
If you mean the harp’s cover plates, then most definitely not because the reeds at the high end are too short and stiff to hit the cover plate. They could be hitting the sides of the comb channels, which is relatively simple to correct, but the other causes are torsional vibration in the reed and/or your bending technique – and you seem to have noticed this with reed 9 already:
Some possible solutions to these problems have already been posted in this forum.
Regards,
– Slim 
There’s some great footage on YouTube of Sister Rosetta Tharp playing that song on a train station on the extended version of that footage you can see Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, and I think the second Sonny Boy Williamson (,Rice Miller) was on there too. I love Sister Rosetta I’ve got everything she ever recorded. She was as you say a total influence on all modern rock guitarists even though he never admitted it I think Chuck Berry got a lot of his style from her, T-bone Walker, Elmore James, and Jimmy Reed.
Sorry slim I used the wrong terminology probably… what I mean is the reeds hitting the reed plates when passing through the holes… could this cause the high pitched squeals I hear?
The only thing that makes me think it is not technique is because on my power bender I can play all the bends no problem now (except for hole 10). Now hole 10 will squeal sometimes when I try to bend it but not others. I do k ow these tunings that draw bend on all the holes are difficult to bend and control on the higher holes (per the Seydel fella ).
The Wilde tuned harp I have plays great except hole 7 has that high squeal when bending and hole 10 I can’t get to bend at all…. I mean not at all.
I’m going to pull the cover plates off and check it out…. Maybe adjust the gapping a bit but I don’t know which way to adjust them in order to help the issues mentioned above. I’m only about 6 months in to playing and have only gapped 1 harp and I didn’t do very good at it.
The only thing I know is I need to plink the reeds so they don’t revert back to where they were (again per they seydel rep).
Any guidance would be appreciated
@MorrisMusic513 so yeah the squealing is caused by by the reed vibrating left to right instead of up and down.
I just grabbed mine and the 9 squeals - sometimes I can get it not too with technique, and the 10 squeals every time I bend it.
@slim explains about waxing the rivets to help with that problem here:
Awesome thank you I’ll get some of that wax and apply it. I appreciate it. Besides that squeaking and not being able to bend hole 10 I love the harp and the tuning. I like the size of the seydel because it forces me to have a nice wide embouchure and the deep relaxed position of the harp is automatic with the Seydel. Love the wood comb too. The only thing is it’s a little too big for my hands to close around it. Like the Hohner.
I’m gonna try a crossover next time I get a richter tuned harp.
Thanks again
Well, I’ve taken the plunge and bought 2 of these from Harmonicas direct, £125 and change. I bought the C and the D, really excited to have a go on them.
I have tuned some harps to make it easier to play specific melodies, especially when a whole note that’s specific to the melody would normally be a bent note.
Also, all my harps are valved in order to play a bend on all holes. Took me a couple of years to get really good at it, but now after about 25 years of doing it, it is quite simple.