Customizing Harmonicas! and the secrets of Alan Wilson  

My group of friends back then were heart broken when Alan passed away. Thanks to you young folks for keeping people like Alan's music alive. You're awesome, keep up the great work

Hey thanks for the shoutout man! I recently customized an old Rocket harp to the Al Wilson “on the road again” tuning. Having some basic harmonica repair skills/tools is a very good thing. Musicians gotta realize that you play the harmonica, the harmonica doesn’t play you. Take them apart and get to know them! Al was my favorite harp player of his era…I like him better than Butterfield. Hooker and heat is a testament to the amazing playing of the Blind Owl. God bless you bud 🙏✝️❤️

Damn bro you can shred on that bad boy 🔥

Thank you for putting this information out there so other people can learn from your mistake!

John Lee Hooker said Alan Wilson was the best harp player he every heard. I quite agree.

Awesome tone 🙏🪷🥇🚀🍻

Good stuff man, alan has kept the blues alive 🙌🙌

the owl was the man... you are doing fine, keep on learning.... make tools, buy them if you have to......

Thank you for the info. Keep them coming

I love this! I recently did a vid about Wilson and one of the things I was wondering about concerning his playing was did he think things out or was it all spur of the moment feel? I tend to think it was well thought out and I think you have verified that somewhat. I knew he did a custom tuning but I didn't know exactly what that meant, so thanks again for showing us!

I just aquired the Honey Pot fuzz, cause of your tone. Never would have I bought a fuzz otherwise. It did not disapoint! The tone control makes it useable for harmonica. Very much so. Thank you! 🙏

For the marine band, may I suggest, if you use a toothpick and glue, the hole will "shrink".

Cool channel brother 😎

Very nice bro! But one thing I will say is do not use an engraver it’s too rough on the reeds use an actual reed scraper!

I`ve got a 1957 supro amp that I want to use for harp. i also have some ancient shure mics. I wonder how an Astatic D 104 would sound.?

I heard this in 2017. Never tried it. "I met Alan Wilson back in the day and he told me a little trick about buying the little white chromatic harmonica tabs from Hohner and gluing them on the upper register to get the bend on the draw. Some guys say you could overblow the 6 to try for that note on 'On the Road again', ala Howard Levy, but not really. Just glue a tab on your upper register."

I just want to repair alot of old Marine Band 1896's!. Catch this later looks great!

Grande gimmorison

Yep , love that canned heat song. I keep it ready to start playing when ever I'm expecting some newbys to drop by. I wait for them to start introducing their selves and then with a remote in my pocket I start easing up the volume to height that makes the buttons on your shirt tickle your chest.lol They are just talking heads for me, until the fact hits them and they start to pipe down, then I throw in one of my portastudio made E-A original instrumentals and sandwich it with some old Peter Green songs. If they're still there ,I turn the volume down to modest level so that I can easily orchestrate any needed conversation. Many times, they will say 'wow' who wAs that ? I answer asking ' which one: they say all of em man. I reply Canned Heat & myself. Lol . Ya see, at 69 I've learned how to get a compliment. Lol . Thank you for sharing. I had no idea how he got that note. You will be adorned with many good things for putting forth the efforts to share what you've learned and your youth gives you lots of time to enjoy them. Peace/ Dennis Fayette Ga.

Use a small arkansas shaving stone instead of rotary tool

I believe you get special files to tune reeds

Damn I missed this one… notifications not on 😢

Alternate take was cool! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TBuVQguyPVY.htmlsi=OjDAFaCZOWsN1wEg

I've trashed a couple harps trying to customize too.. lol

I like Golden Melodies myself, but they’ve gotten so pricey I go through harps quickly I guess I play to hard

finallly back to normalcy and sanity. Happy for you, kid.

Hello, well i am a very beginner. The reason why i play is somehow i heard Little John Chrisley's "The Way It Goes"..i then bought key of G harmonica and tried to play the riff, but i failed. Is it on harmonica G? Or maybe Little John modified his harmonica??

I now realise why I could never play the Blind Owl's solo on On the Road Again. I've been playing since the late 60s and never thought to customise. I keep the reeds working by dropping them in whisky occasionally, but that's all. Al Wilson's playing is, in my view, far superior to that of Paul Butterfield.

What mic are you using?

I am strong in Red Devils …

Yo man ..do you teach,newbie here?

Nice bro, im a bluesman 50 yrs playin. Stop by my channel,, 😎

you are allowed to wreck shit in the name of science! i.e. some things serve better as 'gross anatomy.' I enjoy your thoughts..... let's work together, my man. the HEAT rules!