Richard is from Pennsylvania, where he has lived most of his life
Richard is renowned harmonica customiser, as well as a player and write
Richard’s great uncle Bill played harmonica and inspired him to take up the instrument
First started playing harmonica around age 10, having picked up the guitar age 8, and played some Dylan-style rack harmonica to being with
Lost John by Sonny Terry really lit the torch paper when Richard was age 17 and he started playing with others
Did some travelling in Europe on a bicycle, carrying Marine Band diatonics, a chromatic and a penny whistle
Travelled to Ireland on this trip, which had a deep effect on Richard and the music he wanted to play
Richard took up playing Irish music on the harmonica in a bit of vacuum, as he wasn’t aware of others doing it
Hadn’t heard any others playing Irish music on the harmonica and then heard James Conway, who blew him away
Richard has various Irish tunes recorded on harmonica which he has put out
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
David Rice was at the Clifftop festival, and Richard rates him as one of the best playing traditional tunes on harmonica
Steppin’ Out was the first album release from Richard in 1988, put out on cassette tape
Has recorded an album with Dennis Gruenling, where Richard plays guitar, harmonica on a rack and sings
How got together with Dennis for the album
Richard has been playing rack harmonica since the 1970s, and has some YouTube videos demonstrating the technique
Key to rack to playing is to get a solid rhythm from your right arm on guitar
Played with Bo Diddley in 1987, who was insistent that Richard didn’t play over him when he was singing
Has also played with a couple of symphony orchestras
First became interested in customisation work in 1984 when attended first SPAH convention and Cham-ber Huang explained bending to Richard
This led Richard to start working on a patent for an idea close to what became the XB40 harmonica
How formed customisation partnership with Joe Filisko
Discovered that Rick Epping and a few others had come up with the same idea of ‘primary and secondary reeds’ (which Rick patented)
On the XB40 you can bend all the blow notes a semi tone and whole tone
The differences with the 30 reed version, called the MB30, and similar to Suzuki’s SB30 model
The MB30 was similar to the Suzuki SB30 and Richard’s involvement in the development of the the MB30
Tom Halchak was also involved in making reed plates for the SB30
Worked with Brendan Power and Zombor Kovacs to further develop the MB30
Became a Hohner Affiliated Customiser
Made fifty of the MB30s with Brendan and Zombor but the process was difficult so didn’t make any more
Richard really loves the MB30 though and built some for himself and still plays them
Richard would be delighted to exchange any MB30s from the people who bought the original run of 50
The MB30 is almost the same size as a standard diatonic, whereas the XB40 is larger and has a different tone than standard diatonics
Had been working on customisation for a long time before starting work on the MB30
Richard’s work with Joe Filisko on the ‘Filisko Method’ diatonic harmonicas
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
Richard is still in touch with Joe Filisko but not working on Filisko Method harmonicas now
Richard developed the idea of being able to sight the harmonica reed by the use of light boxes
Doesn’t use microscopes in customisation work as too much detail
Welcomes the increase in harmonica customisers
Working in harmonica customisation is not an easy way to make a living
Harmonica customisation work has been an important source of income, alongside playing and teaching harmonica
The basic principles followed by Richard and Joe Filisko are probably well covered by other customisers now
Does understanding how the reed works helps your harmonica playing?
Difference between people setting-up their harmonicas themselves and using a customiser like Richard
Richard has a series of customisation videos to purchase called ‘Hot Rod Your Harmonica - The Movie’
The name Hot Rod comes from Richard’s interest in vintage cars
Still building custom Hohner Marine Band Deluxe harmonicas
These harmonicas are not set-up for overblows as Richard doesn’t play them much as he uses the MB30 for the missing notes
Only customises Hohner harmonicas
Focuses on diatonic customisation
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)
Not doing as much customisation work as used to
Richard’s waiting list for custom harmonicas is 6-9 months but he often completes them before then
Has four harmonica tuition courses available: on blues, Irish, bending and Sweet Georgia Brown
Provides evaluations of student submissions for the online Tomlin Leckie harmonica school
An example of one of Richard’s YouTube tuition videos is on how to play a blues bugle on diatonic using arpeggios
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
Brings in elements of philosophy to his writing and how music connects him to a higher power
Has done session work, including music for theatre productions and corporate videos where they wanted royalty free music
Works with guitar and harmonica together, ensuring they are beautifully in tune and then work out arrangements between them
Plays exclusively Hohner harmonicas with the Marine Band Deluxe the model of choice
Plays some chromatic, with the older Super 64X model a favourite
Also plays some Hohner auto-valve and Hohner Educator harmonicas
Uses different tunings, including Paddy Richter, Country Tuned and has invented some of own tunings
Using one tuning for one specific song is a way to navigate different tunings
Preferred tuning system is 19-limit Just Intonation
Plays mostly in 1st, 2nd and 3rd position but uses several more for songs as required
Alternates between tongue blocking and lip pursing embouchre
Amps of choice include a 1942 Supro and a Wahoo amp and a Kalamazoo amp
For a clean sound uses a Fishman amp for a mini-PA and also with a Lone Wolf pedal to add distortion
Uses custom mics from Dennis Gruenling
Learned to play on an amp with no tone control which he believes helped develop his chops
Future plans include putting out a recording of a live concert on Bandcamp and put out some more fiddle tunes played on harmonica
