Richard Sleigh interview

01:31 - Richard is from Pennsylvania, where he has lived most of his life

01:47 - Richard is renowned harmonica customiser, as well as a player and write

01:59 - Richard’s great uncle Bill played harmonica and inspired him to take up the instrument

02:59 - First started playing harmonica around age 10, having picked up the guitar age 8, and played some Dylan-style rack harmonica to being with

03:23 - Lost John by Sonny Terry really lit the torch paper when Richard was age 17 and he started playing with others

04:33 - Did some travelling in Europe on a bicycle, carrying Marine Band diatonics, a chromatic and a penny whistle

05:28 - Travelled to Ireland on this trip, which had a deep effect on Richard and the music he wanted to play

06:50 - Richard took up playing Irish music on the harmonica in a bit of vacuum, as he wasn’t aware of others doing it

07:36 - Hadn’t heard any others playing Irish music on the harmonica and then heard James Conway, who blew him away

08:30 - Richard has various Irish tunes recorded on harmonica which he has put out

09:14 - Now plays a combination of Irish and Old Timey music on harmonica and recently went to the Clifftop Appalachian String Band Music Festival in West Virginia

09:47 - David Rice was at the Clifftop festival, and Richard rates him as one of the best playing traditional tunes on harmonica

11:23 - Steppin’ Out was the first album release from Richard in 1988, put out on cassette tape

12:01 - Has recorded an album with Dennis Gruenling, where Richard plays guitar, harmonica on a rack and sings

12:48 - How got together with Dennis for the album

13:22 - Richard has been playing rack harmonica since the 1970s, and has some YouTube videos demonstrating the technique

14:03 - Key to rack to playing is to get a solid rhythm from your right arm on guitar

15:13 - Played with Bo Diddley in 1987, who was insistent that Richard didn’t play over him when he was singing

17:10 - Has also played with a couple of symphony orchestras

18:58 - Richard’s harmonica shop

19:06 - First became interested in customisation work in 1984 when attended first SPAH convention and Cham-ber Huang explained bending to Richard

19:46 - This led Richard to start working on a patent for an idea close to what became the XB40 harmonica

20:20 - How formed customisation partnership with Joe Filisko

20:53 - Discovered that Rick Epping and a few others had come up with the same idea of ‘primary and secondary reeds’ (which Rick patented)

21:50 - On the XB40 you can bend all the blow notes a semi tone and whole tone

22:30 - The differences with the 30 reed version, called the MB30, and similar to Suzuki’s SB30 model

22:55 - The MB30 was similar to the Suzuki SB30 and Richard’s involvement in the development of the the MB30

23:22 - Tom Halchak was also involved in making reed plates for the SB30

23:56 - Worked with Brendan Power and Zombor Kovacs to further develop the MB30

24:19 - Became a Hohner Affiliated Customiser

24:30 - Made fifty of the MB30s with Brendan and Zombor but the process was difficult so didn’t make any more

25:47 - Richard really loves the MB30 though and built some for himself and still plays them

27:00 - Richard would be delighted to exchange any MB30s from the people who bought the original run of 50

27:43 - The MB30 is almost the same size as a standard diatonic, whereas the XB40 is larger and has a different tone than standard diatonics

28:33 - Had been working on customisation for a long time before starting work on the MB30

28:49 - Richard’s work with Joe Filisko on the ‘Filisko Method’ diatonic harmonicas

30:33 - Richard opened a custom harmonica shop from a property his parents owned and has since been working as a harmonica customiser for over thirty years

31:06 - Richard is still in touch with Joe Filisko but not working on Filisko Method harmonicas now

31:50 - Richard developed the idea of being able to sight the harmonica reed by the use of light boxes

32:43 - Doesn’t use microscopes in customisation work as too much detail

33:05 - Welcomes the increase in harmonica customisers

34:01 - Working in harmonica customisation is not an easy way to make a living

34:07 - Harmonica customisation work has been an important source of income, alongside playing and teaching harmonica

34:34 - The basic principles followed by Richard and Joe Filisko are probably well covered by other customisers now

35:11 - Does understanding how the reed works helps your harmonica playing?

35:50 - Difference between people setting-up their harmonicas themselves and using a customiser like Richard

37:42 - Richard has a series of customisation videos to purchase called ‘Hot Rod Your Harmonica - The Movie’

39:06 - The name Hot Rod comes from Richard’s interest in vintage cars

39:57 - Still building custom Hohner Marine Band Deluxe harmonicas

40:11 - These harmonicas are not set-up for overblows as Richard doesn’t play them much as he uses the MB30 for the missing notes

40:47 - Only customises Hohner harmonicas

40:58 - Focuses on diatonic customisation

41:12 - Isn’t shipping to the EU or the UK at the moment due to the red tape involved. There are good customisers in Europe (such as Joel Andersson)

42:00 - Not doing as much customisation work as used to

42:25 - Richard’s waiting list for custom harmonicas is 6-9 months but he often completes them before then

42:44 - Has four harmonica tuition courses available: on blues, Irish, bending and Sweet Georgia Brown

43:27 - Provides evaluations of student submissions for the online Tomlin Leckie harmonica school

43:52 - An example of one of Richard’s YouTube tuition videos is on how to play a blues bugle on diatonic using arpeggios

44:48 - Also likes to write and wrote a regular article for five years for the Harmonica World magazine and sends out a monthly newsletter to his email subscribers

45:35 - Brings in elements of philosophy to his writing and how music connects him to a higher power

46:44 - Has done session work, including music for theatre productions and corporate videos where they wanted royalty free music

48:05 - Ten minute question

49:03 - Works with guitar and harmonica together, ensuring they are beautifully in tune and then work out arrangements between them

49:55 - Plays exclusively Hohner harmonicas with the Marine Band Deluxe the model of choice

50:10 - Plays some chromatic, with the older Super 64X model a favourite

50:32 - Also plays some Hohner auto-valve and Hohner Educator harmonicas

50:39 - Uses different tunings, including Paddy Richter, Country Tuned and has invented some of own tunings

50:59 - Using one tuning for one specific song is a way to navigate different tunings

51:41 - Preferred tuning system is 19-limit Just Intonation

52:15 - Plays mostly in 1st, 2nd and 3rd position but uses several more for songs as required

52:52 - Alternates between tongue blocking and lip pursing embouchre

53:11 - Uses tongue switching

53:26 - Amps of choice include a 1942 Supro and a Wahoo amp and a Kalamazoo amp

54:17 - For a clean sound uses a Fishman amp for a mini-PA and also with a Lone Wolf pedal to add distortion

54:35 - Uses custom mics from Dennis Gruenling

54:42 - Harmonica rack used

54:57 - Learned to play on an amp with no tone control which he believes helped develop his chops

55:36 - Future plans include putting out a recording of a live concert on Bandcamp and put out some more fiddle tunes played on harmonica