The SlipSlider - a Revolutionary Blues Harp.

[Brendan]

Yay! Been working on this cool little harp for quite a while, good to finally launch it. Check out the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4go9MKwBIU8

And here is the web-page:

http://www.brendan-power.com/SlipSlider.php

Interested to hear your thoughts

[Lizzy]

I think its a great invention and interesting idea in a lot of ways. I just have to wait for a Seydel version though. Any idea when a Seydel version is available?
This is my second item on my waiting list.

[CrawfordEs]

Hmmm.
I like the concept.
Some tunings with little bending ability could be made very expressive.
An orchestra bebop or a fourkey that could now have bends all the way up and down would be nice.
Still, I’m a bit leery about the execution.
Maybe it’s just today.

[Lizzy]

Its kind of remind me a little of Bahnson overblow harp without the slider

[Roverharp]

Very clever. Very cool.

Can the slide mechanism be operated quickly enough to play lines that incorporate both the new and regular bends? Is it essentially as fast as the button on a chromatic?

A couple other questions -

when sliding left do the new pairs of reeds in a particular air stream allow for bends of familiar notes but at a much deeper level? As an example the slider can pair 'A' and 'E' in hole 6 which will yield a bend of two full steps compared to the normal half step bend. This would be especially nice on Hole 5 to bend the formerly non bendable 'F'. I din't hear mention of this Hole 5 in the video.

I don't quite get the requirement for a damper on Hole 7 Draw and why other holes would not be similarly affected. I assume it has something to do with the breath switch at Hole 7 on Richter tuned harps. Would the damper not be needed on a Circular tuning and the like.

Thanks again for your continued innovation Brendan. Now I'll have to ponder whether go with the Slippy or the Uni-bender. A happy dilemma.

[Brendan]

Good questions. The bends I demonstrated are the only new ones possible on a Richter tuned harp. For key C:

Hole 2 blow: E to D#
Hole 5 blow: E to D#
Hole 6 blow: G to F#
Hole 7 blow: C to B and Bb
Hole 8 draw: D to C#
Hole 9 draw: A to G#

That's 6 new bends (7 if you include the two semitones on hole 7 blow).

In other tunings you will get different bends. For example, in a regular breath tuning like PowerBender there is no need for the bottom reedplate to move to the left (to right is all that's required), and you get fewer extra bends because there are more there to begin with.

You can use the new bends in chromatic runs etc - I'll demonstrate that in a new video. As for speed, I'm sure it can be pretty fast and slick with practice. I haven't done a lot of that yet myself!

[CrawfordEs]

I’m even more interested now.
Sorry for doubting earlier but it was April first....
The hole 7 thing, I assume it would not be needed for tunings unrelated to Richter?
Or is it needed to isolate the hole because of spacing issues with the slide mechanism?

[Brendan]

Ah yes, the hole 7 draw dampener...

In my comb design, because of the Richter tuning, there is a large chamber at the crossover between the two breath patterns at hole 7. Without the dampener, 7 draw will stay in the airstream when the lower reedplate is pushed to right or left.

That's no good for the blow bend on 7 (gained with a rightward movement of the draw reedplate), which only requires the 6 draw to interact with. And it's bad for the draw on 8 (leftways movement of the draw plate) which only wants the 7 blow to interact with.

The reed dampener is on a pivot and cam operated. It hangs away from the 7 draw by gravity when the draw reedplate is at the middle neutral position for normal play, but is pressed down on the 7 draw when the plate is moved in either direction. It has a soft pad on the underside where it rests on the reed

[CrawfordEs]

Thanks!
It sounds like an elegant solution to the spacing problem.

[Lizzy]

Which bends are availble on powerbender?