Currently available paddy richter harmonica

[Alan]

Hi,

I've been interested in trying a paddy richter harp and the slide diatonic seems interesting but currently not available. What are the current options for paddy richter? Are there any plans to bring back the slide diatonic paddy richter?

[CrawfordEs]

Maybe there is a new version of the slide diatonic coming?
It is way too cool of idea to let slide.
Rockin Ron and New Harmonica both stock Paddy Richter harps.
I just built myself a slide diatonic Harmonic minor harp out of an old Koch C harp. It's a lot of fun to try and play middle eastern and gypsy tunes.

[Pete Handy]

I moved to Ireland 12 months ago and there are regular sessions in nearby pubs. I've never played trad Irish, but I would love to try a Paddy Richter harp. On the few occasions when I have checked, they are not in Stock. I have a friend who plays one of those long tremolo harmonicas and it's great for playing chords, but I wouldn't think it would be too good on a melody. Is is possible to pre-order harps? Do you make a batch or just made to order?

[CrawfordEs]

Tremolo harps are nice for melodies, no missing notes with the Suzuki, Tombo, and Easttops in Asian tuning (some have the bottom few holes set up for chords though). Hohners and some Seydel are Richter tuned.
Tremolos are fun, but just don't seem to have the expression you can get out out of a single reed (or x-reed) harp.
Brendan sells Suzuki pro masters that are Paddy Richter tuned and half valved for a good price . They are very nice. Very nice.
Harmonicas-direct is in the U.K. they ship anywhere and sell Paddy Richter tuned Seydels.
Harmonicas Direct sell their own Rebranded tremolos that are pretty nice and very inexpensive. I had one and was playing it outside and noticed a young guy was watching, he said he thought it was cool, and that he used to play sax in high school but it was a pain to carry around and .... so I gave him the tremolo. They are cheap enough to give away, but good enough to not be completely frustrating.

[CrawfordEs]

Oops, not sure if we are allowed to mention other vendors here so, if it is frowned upon, I apologize.

[Brendan]

Mention anything you like, this is an easygoing space for open discussion

Re. Availability of Paddy Richter Slide Diatonic and Irish Session harps...

They are niche items, not widely used. We got them made to order by Hering in small batches, but experienced various problems (long delays in delivery, some quality issues), so decided to stop.

We wanted to try an alternate supplier but the problem is that valved 10-hole Richter chroms, esp in different keys, are virtually impossible to find. There is a very cheap Chinese 10 hole chrom commonly sold to beginners, but it's un-valved, has wider hole spacing, and is not in different keys.

Jiangsu Qimei did make a Solo tuned valved 10 hole in C, like the Hohner 260, but were not willing to make in Paddy Richter, different keys or small batches. Hohner has discontinued the Slide Harp, so basically there is nothing else around besides the Hering that could have been suitable.

But hang in there, because I have a radical alternative idea coming very soon that will allow us to solve this problem and offer all kinds of other specialist harmonica models without having to rely on the vagaries of working with manufacturers in remote locations.

It will be first announced on this forum later this month, so watch this space.

[CrawfordEs]

OK,
I'm intrigued.

[hparks]

I'd definitely be interested in checking out the Paddy Richter slide diatonics. I've been interested in these for a while, but based on my experience with Hering harmonicas, I had been hesitant to buy (I've liked them, but they don't seem to last).

[Alan]

But hang in there, because I have a radical alternative idea coming very soon that will allow us to solve this problem and offer all kinds of other specialist harmonica models without having to rely on the vagaries of working with manufacturers in remote locations.

It will be first announced on this forum later this month, so watch this space.

So later this month is just a few more hours.

[Brendan]

I meant later THIS month...

Apologies for the delay. This is just one of a slew of new harp models I have coming out soon and I'm reorganising my systems to improve production efficiency. I want to get everything in place before the first release, and various preparatory steps (writing patents, setting up a new 'pocket factory' for making stuff, arranging terms for a person to manage it etc etc) have taken longer than anticipated.

We're nearly there. I won't make promises on dates, but I'm keen to roll out these harps as I've been working on them for many months - years, in some cases! New stuff will be announced here first.