The Majestic CIXII Harmonica

A harp made in Heaven05/04/2025
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Majestic CIXII / Simon Jepps

The Majestic CIXII Harmonica is a special custom set-up of my own, which is basically a custom-tuned Seydel Big SIX Folk (in C) strapped to the top of a Hohner CX12 Jazz (in G), with... a hair-band.

Sounds simple and yet whilst it is indeed that straight forward, what in fact this beautiful, ingenious idea of an instrument actually does... is no less than out of this world.

Let me explain... I have been playing innumerous various tunings of Blues Harmonica for aeons, all with the objective of trying to create something more adaptable and chromatic, my latest and pride-most being the Jepps'harp.

Similarly I have been somewhat frustrated by the Chromatic Harmonica, in that whilst it does of course offer the absolute solution to playing fully chromatically, it is nevertheless victim of its own design. Sure, there are numerous more chords available but *aagghhrr* not enough and, whilst chromatic, bending notes is only limited to micro expressions as opposed to full-blown bends on a Blues Harp.

In short, we have two worlds which are fighting an astronomical war to be together and yet to remain apart all at the same time and, regardless of modern technological attempts to marry-and-evolve-traits into one instrument, such as sympathetic 'X' reeds, valveless chromatics and bluesy slide-harps, these never seem to quite become the saviour many players hope for.

Well one day, whilst enjoying the sweet, mellow chromatics of my Hohner CX12 Jazz, I spied out of the corner of my eye, three Seydel Big SIX harps I kept on my window sill. "Hey, hang on a minute..." I thought, "The Big SIX is very lightweight, very small and yet just as powerful as a full-size Blues Harp... what if I strap one to my CX12 and change the world?"

So I did.

And how did I think this idea would change the world? Well... when I had the idea I was playing along to Miles Davis' All Blues and I realised that if I custom-tune a Big SIX Folk with say, a Flattened 7th, this will not only give me even, even more chords and fully bendable blues notes... but I will have a B♭ Major 7th / D Minor / C Major / G+G Minor 7(frags) on top of all my G-Tuned Chromatic Chords, such as G Major / A♭ Major / D 7(frag) / E♭ 7(frag) / A Minor 6 / B♭ Minor 6 etc... And all floating over the G 7 / C 7 / G Minor 7th / E♭ 7♯⁹ / D 7♯⁹ herewith of... the most beautiful Harmonica accompaniment Miles Davis would have ever heard to his masterpiece... All Blues.

The first time I played my Majestic CIXII to Miles Davis' All Blues there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that what I was holding in my hands was a divine marriage prepared and invoked by angels in Heaven.

Seriously, are you a CX12 player? Then give the CIXII a try, you will know why.

Of course on a technical note, any configuration you like would work - a Low C tuned CX12 with an A♭ tuned Big SIX - anything... that is the beauty of this set-up.

I usually play a Low C chromatic because it is standard and I find it confusing at first switching to a G, but, after a while it has grown on me so much so, that in fact I find these two tunings of two harps combined to form a most perfect, sweetly balanced instrument. In fact, a majestic instrument.

Thank you for reading.

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