$69.00
The LowRider is the first structural change to a Lee Oskar harmonica since the company was founded in 1983. A wider, more open cover plate gives the instrument a different voice and a different feel in the hands, and it does so without leaving the Lee Oskar system: every reed plate, cover plate and comb you already own still fits. The LowRider is a Major Diatonic, tuned exactly like the standard Blues tuning players already know.
Cover plates shape how a harmonica projects. The LowRider’s are wider and more open than the standard Lee Oskar covers, which lets the sound out more freely and changes both the tone and the physical feel of playing.
This is a genuine design change rather than a finish. In more than forty years of building harmonicas around interchangeable parts, it is the first time Lee Oskar has altered the structure of the instrument itself.
Lee Oskar wrote the harmonica riff that opens “Low Rider” with his bandmates in WAR, and the song was released in 1975. Fifty years on, that hook is still one of the most recognizable few seconds in American popular music, later carried to a new audience as the theme to The George Lopez Show and feature in countless popular TV, and films. From Disneyland to rapper BBNO$, “Low Rider” endures in the social Zeitgeist of America.
The LowRider harmonica was developed in celebration of that anniversary, and Model 1975 takes its number from the year.
The LowRider is part of the system, not an exception to it. Its reed plates, cover plates and comb interchange with every other Lee Oskar harmonica, so you can service it from parts you already have, fit its open covers to another body, or retune it by fitting Melody Maker, Natural Minor or Harmonic Minor reed plates.
That compatibility is the point. A new instrument that made your existing parts obsolete would not be a Lee Oskar.
Product Details: Lee Oskar LowRider Harmonica, Model 1975. Major Diatonic tuning, Orange Label. Key of C only.
| Weight | 3.36 oz |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 4.375 × 1.5 × 1.125 in |
| Select Key: | Key of C |
The cover plates. The LowRider’s are wider and more open, which lets the instrument project differently and changes the feel of playing it. Everything else is familiar: it is an Orange Label Major Diatonic, the standard Blues tuning, so nothing you have learned has to change.
The LowRider is sold as a Major Diatonic. Because reed plates interchange across the whole Lee Oskar system, you can fit Melody Maker, Natural Minor or Harmonic Minor plates to it yourself.
Yes. Reed plates, cover plates and combs all interchange with the rest of the Lee Oskar Harmonica System, so you can service the LowRider from parts you already own or fit its open covers to another Lee Oskar body.
Although it is possible to play in many keys of music on any one harmonica by using various positions, most players use only the first two. 1st Position, also known as Straight Harp, starts from Blow, and on a Major Diatonic that suits Folk and Country. 2nd Position, also known as Cross Harp, starts from Draw, which puts the bendable notes at the centre of the layout and produces the classic Blues sound. For more information see Understanding 1st / 2nd Position.
Yes. Lee Oskar has published tablature for the song alongside learning guides for all four tunings in the system, and he has taught the tune at workshops and festivals around the world.
For the year “Low Rider” was released. Lee Oskar composed the song’s harmonica riff with his bandmates in WAR, and the LowRider harmonica was developed to mark its fiftieth anniversary.