MiniBass Harmonica with Lasercut Reedplates

[Brendan]

My X-Reed Harmonicas partner André Coelho proposed an interesting concept to me a few months ago: a super compact bass harmonica, the same size as a standard 10-hole diatonic.

Using low-low Hohner Thunderbird reedplates for testing, he managed to get the reed pitch down into the regular bass range to prove the concept was workable. Then he asked me to cut some bespoke reedplates with all long slots on my fibre lasercutting machine, so it could take low-pitched reeds in all 10 holes. I did that and designed/made the other necessary parts (combs, mouthpiece etc), and sent all to André.

He attached the reeds with screws, retuned them to a blow/draw chromatic scale I suggested, and gave it a toot. It's sounding pretty good! Here's a demo clip he recently posted on Facebook, playing the melody of a single written by Kaitlin Dibble, Jason Ricci s wife:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1ASTHhgbnM/

You can see a photo of the reedplates here, with the all-low reeds installed:

IMG-20251012-WA0002.jpg

[triona]

This is what Andre wrote about it:
"In between a lot of work being done here, I am spending time refining the super compact bass harmonica I have posted about a while ago. I am pretty sure that this super low range has never been done before on such a compact instrument (this one goes from G1 to D3, fully chromatic, blow and draw notes)
With new and unique parts designed by Brendan Power, plus the special reedplates he cut for me to populate with extra low Thunderbird reeds, it now plays really well, very airtight and no noises. Still some details to work on, but it starts to feel like a final product which should be available in the near future.
Won't go into more details or pictures besides the reedplates, for now just hear how it is sounding like!"

And I must say, it sounds really great for a tiny Instrument like that. I wonder how he processed the covers. There is no rattling to hear on the lowest drawreeds. I am eagerly looking forward till it is ready for sale.

Here you can see and compare the range of the most usual Bass harmonicas.
The range of Andre's new Minibass reaches as low as the Hohner 264, which is a renowned "big" chromatic bass. And it reaches much lower than the the Tombo Pocket-Bass or the Easttop Mini-Bass, as well as the Seydel 1847 LLE, which has been the lowest 10/20 diatonic up till now - with the exception of Boris Platnikov's unique retuned Seydel 1847 LLEb, on which he added loads of solder. And all those are diatonics.

[Brendan]

Thanks for your interesting and informative reply Triona!

I'm currently working with André to design a new comb for the MiniBass that will make it even more compact in height. Will send him the new parts for testing later this week.

[triona]

I am looking forward to this.
I think there must be found a good compromise between compactness and enough volume to give room to the low bass frequencies. I would prefere more volume to extreme minimizing. Think about the slightly thicker combs of the Seydel 1847 LOW series, and about the higher covers of those. And think about the Helmholtz coupling effect when designing the comb. But I think you know enough about this.

What kind of reed do you use? Is it brass, steel or phosphor bronze? Do you process ready reeds from an established manufacturer? Or will you design and make your own ones? There might be some problems come up when the thickness and respectively the weight of the reeds on their free ends are getting too much in relation to the all over size of the reeds. If it is too much, the reeds are very prone to break near their fixed end when played too hard. I have already had some breaks on the low draw reeds of one of my Lucky 13 in G - which starts at G2.

Here I remember your prototype of a 10/20 with accordion reeds, which I fortunately could play in Norrköping in 2017. Reeds like this might be far more durable than heavily thickened ones with their inevitable breaking point near their fixed end. And the size of this prototype is really quite compact too. There it is necessary to find a good compromise between compactness and durability as well. If the distance between the attachment point of the reed and the thickening of its free end is too short in relation to the all over length and the weight of the reed, the propensity of the reed to break will increase.