Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

I didn't hear the parrot. :lol: And I didn't realize any loss by compression. But if you like, you can try to upload your next record on soundcloud and set a link into your post here. I do not know how much they compress the files. Thanks, Triona. I'll do that next time! I'm going to woodshed some ...

This is very impressive and intriguing. Brendan’s playing is amazing, and I’m really curious about the instrument that makes those bends possible.

This sounds like an interesting project @mozharp. If you have any recordings of your new Trochilus tuning in action playing Bluegrass, we'd love to hear them. Here's a very rough recording. My parrot is chirping along in the background, and my wife and kids walk in at the end, but hey, it's bluegra...

Hi Brendan thanks for the reply! Yes I meant Switch-Harp. You’ve cured me of my FOMO thanks.

I love the Trochilus and I’ve gotten pretty adept at trying out different tunings with poster putty and solder. Super fun.

How do the Trochilus and Twin Diatonic compare in playability? Which is more air tight, easier to hold, etc? How do the high notes compare? I really like the Trochilus. I’ve never played a twin diatonic. With the twin diatonic you can swap out harps quickly for different tunings. But the overall pac...

How hard would it be to set that hole up for overblows without a booster? Not hard at all. I just lowered the gap of the blow reed a little and it overblows well now. I could get it out of the box but it’s better with some minor gapping adjustments. I like to tongue block though and I can’t reliabl...

Thanks again Brendan and Triona! Here is my tuning for the first 6 holes: blow slide in B E F# B E F# blow C E G C E G draw D G B D F A draw slide in D F# A D F# A The blow slide in E and F# makes fast scale runs up to the G easier. For example on holes 5 and 6, E F# G is all blow and requires just ...

Thanks Brendan and Triona for the helpful and informative replies! On a C harp I’ve tuned the draw slide in notes to a D chord. In cross harp position I can now chug and play double stops on the I, IV, and V chords. I also get the missing ii and vii scale degrees in the low octave in cross harp posi...

Does anyone have any tips on how to fashion an overblow booster for one hole on a Trochilus? I’ve come up with a more diatonic tuning for the Trochilus that I really like for bluegrass. It’s like a slide diatonic in that I sacrifice some chromatic notes for more enharmonics and chord possibilities. ...

Hi Ed, Yes the lower pitched reeds on the Trochilus have that raised bit of metal at the free end, similar in size to the same reeds on other diatonic harmonicas. I’ve only tuned two reeds sharp and only a half step. I’m not the best person to ask about tuning techniques. FWIW I used a low powered r...