Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Aha, the 11-Hole Stretch-Harp rides again! It's good to see someone exploring the Stretch-Harp idea, and I'm glad you like my old Regular-Breath tuning from the 1980s. I've been through quite a few changes of preferred tuning since then, tuning entire sets of harps to a new scale every 10 years or s...

UNIVERSAL TURBOSLIDE I'm glad Jim Antaki got in touch with you about your development to the Turboslide concept. He's a busy man and can be rather unresponsive. SLIPSLIDER Your video demonstrates well what I tried to explain to Richter players about the SlipSlider in the past: just put it in one pos...

The first one probably can be solved by gluing micro magnets to the middle of the reed - so it doesn't affect the pitch by itself but allows reed to be moved by magnetic field. Good luck with that! Jim Antaki spent quite a lot of time trying to extend his Turboslide invention to harps with non-stee...

I've checked: there's plenty of room inside the Trochilus comb chambers for valves, so have no fear

Thanks for your positive thoughts Marty. If I get any better results with Gasket-Valves for the Trochilus without front screws I'll let you know. In the meantime, the DIY route seems your best bet. Glueing on valves is not difficult after you've had a bit of practice. I suggest put in an hour doing ...

Adding to the valving discussion: I thinking I was being too adamant about the need for OverValves. If the x-reeds are set with zero or slightly negative gap they shouldn't sound in normal play. But in my experience of making these types of harp, I generally find on certain bends I start to get inte...

Yes, doing the Trochilus Gasket-Valves together with André adding the front screws is a workable option, though quite niche! It would depend on players being happy to send their harps and wait/pay for the job to be done, including double postage costs. If it were part of a bigger customizing job it ...

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...