Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Looking at your OverValve Plate:

You'll need to add pockets on alternate slots to accommodate the wider area where the reed is welded onto the plate in order to get a good seal.

Thanks for the posts. Since I got my Trochilus a few days ago I went ahead and designed a set of Gasket-Valves for it. I cut and tried them yesterday. However I found that, without front reedplate screws to clamp the plates down everywhere, they destabilise the airtight fit of the reedplates on the ...

As you say Dom, the Trochilus should provide a nice platform for your X-Reed experiments. Not just because of the slim comb, but also because it has excellent reed/slot tolerances - which is important for such demanding harps. I now have one and checked the reedplates under my microscope. They are e...

Robert wrote: I am trying to preserve the standard sympathetic bends and overflows in one reed configuration, while allowing the player to access Sub30 style sympathetic bends of the opposite reed as well. Hence the two configurations I was outlining in my original post. Hah! It sounds as if you are...

Dominick's note and valving suggestions are good. Just to clarify, for valving of the x-reeds you'll need over-valves (valves on the same side as the reed, lifted off it by an over-valve plate). The only way to avoid 4 valves per chamber is to have two valves set between the mouth and the reeds, as ...

Belated thanks for your video, Dom. It certainly shows that your ingenious assembly works to alter draw reeds pitches in the Seydel 1847. The magnet spring back is cool, and the fact it works on both blow and draw reeds is a first. Well done! BTW I sent your demo video of it to Jim Antaki and Seydel...

Someone here might be able to confirm my suspicious so I don’t have to go ahead and design and print a device that would allow me to test it I don't see why that's needed...? Why not just take the slide assembly off a chromatic, tune and gap the reeds to your desired setup/s, put your mouth over th...

That's correct Triona! Assuming of course that the primary scale (eg. C) in on the top reedplate, and the 4th down secondary scale (F) is on the lower reedplate. If the reedplates are reversed, so should the slider be. This kind of slider could easily be made at the factory with laser cutting - but ...

Thanks for the sound clip and interesting ideas, Triona. That power-chord harp sounds fun! There is a way to make a slider that plays just one hole or both holes. It can be used to play single notes and an octave or, in your case, single notes and a fifth down. A classic 270-type slider has a series...

Nice ideas 👍 The C/F combo certainly is good for enabling easy wide interval leaps with the slider. However, I wonder how easy it would be to jump around when you're aiming for a draw bendable enharmonic of a blow reed on the C harp. For example, this one: The 2nd position 4 is now accessible as nic...