1 week on Harpejji--"Harpejji Heartache"--K24 Harpejji Performance

Presenting the Harpejji K24 made with cherry wood. I got my K24 a week ago, love it to death, and have worked up a quick original tune called "Harpejji Heartache." A few clams and missed notes, but hey--it's only been a week!

https://youtu.be/nM3Nysn2iuQ


The K24 has 8 bass strings on one output, and then 16 treble strings on the other output. It uses regular Ernie Ball guitar strings. It's tuned whole steps across strings, and then half steps up and down, from A0 to A5 across the whole thing. There are several spots on the fretboard where notes are repeated.

My "complaints,' or or issues noted about it.
The very top of the K24 has really high action and doesn't sound as good. Generally the lower you can stay on the fretboard, the better the sound. Go left and right to go up and down, and only up a string maybe 3-4 frets. The very bottom row of frets is similiar to the X frets on a Stick, in that they make a sound and are playable, but don't sound as good or play as easy.

There needs to be about 10 strings on the bass side, rather than 8. I find myself having to go up higher than D on the 8th string rather than cross over to the treble string side. There's also no obvious line between the bass and treble side. I find myself counting 8 strings all the time, unless I'm plugged in, and then I can tell a definite difference between the two sides' pickup.

I feel like both sides of the Stick sound somewhat the same where similiar note ranges are played. But the Stick does have some areas and some strings where certain notes sound better. There's a definite sweet spot on the Harpejji K24, from the 2nd set of frets up to the 5th or so. You could chop off all the Harpejji above fret 6 or so and add some more bass strings and then you'd be rocking.

But my complaints are few. You can see that I've found my way around the fretboard in just a week.

What I like: I can play it pretty much instantly! And look at those 5-finger, 2-octave chords on the right hand! I can't do that on piano (the wide, open chords can be done on Stick, however, but not usually 5-finger chords.) But my left hand is pretty much just two fingers, and maybe 3 when I get fancy. I'm playing it more as a bass guitar, rather than Stick or bass-side of a piano.

Thought I'd share some Harpejji jamming. Still Sticking it as well, of course! Cheers!

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Adds by popular demand, here is the raw and dry tracks, straight from the Harpejji to digital tape, no EQing, no compression, no effects. I merely normalized the tracks slightly (which did nothing for the treble side and added a couple Db to the bass side, which I probably was a tiny bit low to avoid clipping on an unknown instrument).

https://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1/h ... eekraw-dry

Fantastic! It really sounds like a guitar in the right hand. I can see how Stevie Wonder loves the sound of it.

I came so close to buying one of those things before the Warr Phalanx dropped into my lap [well, not exactly...] and used the notion that perhaps I could play the Warr the same way - on my lap, or on a table like you are doing here since the neck is so massive.

One observation here - the bass notes to me sound a little - well, they don't sound like a stringed instrument perhaps because the scale is so short ?? but on the other hand, the mids and top end is spetacular, and the logic of this instrument is quite good.

I completely get with what you are saying about the Stick here:

"I feel like both sides of the Stick sound somewhat the same where similiar note ranges are played. But the Stick does have some areas and some strings where certain notes sound better."

...and that was part of the reason why I chose not to go in the Grand Stick direction, but to Emmett's 8 string creations, of which one will be arriving here tomorrow which includes a little bit of help from Steinberger and Moses

I'm glad you posted this video, as I always wondered about the Harpejji, as at the time my interest was in medieval instruments, lutes, things like that...

Excellent write up as well., Bravo !!

Very harpsichord-like. Is that just EQ settings? I noticed Cory Henry gets a less strident tone. Are there pickup options like a Stick? Or is it just the piezo thing that's available?

Ah, I should have noted: I’ve been playing through an amp for the week and only just last night plugged it into Pro Tools and started recording. I used many of my Stick plugins and settings on it but have not even started on dialing in a sound best for it. I thought about having a section of the “clean” sound as well, but this was a chance for me to see what it could sound like. Sorry for any confusion! I didn’t touch any EQ setting per se, but I did use Neutron’s AI feature to auto futz with everything. And part of that was EQ and saturation and pixie magic. And also I used CLA Guitar plugin for clean electric guitar, patch 2, on the treble side and that came with compression and reverb and delay. Pretty much plugged in and played using Stick settings.

No pickup options that I’m aware of. But I’ve messed a bit with the stock sound. Give me at least more than the 8 minutes I’ve spent so far in dialing in a good sound. Pickups are active and one under each string but they must sum to two sides. Like a Fender Rhodes electric piano, from what I can see. Except two outputs in one jack. And not passive.

Rock on Mr. Sink!! Congrats!


Enviado do meu iPhone usando o Tapatalk

Sounds really good, Stephen - but I am not too surprised by that! The trebly strings sound a lot like a guitar and the baser strings sound almost synth-like - Pretty interesting!

Very cool. Thats something that seems pretty tempting. Cant wait to see how you incorporate the harpeji into your music .

We can see that you're a piano player and the way the harpejji is built is better for piano player. Well, it's really good for only one week. I'd like to hear it with an equalization a bit different...with a "jazz tone" let's say...smoother.

Nice job.