Brendan Power

HISTORY OF THE IDEA

It turns out the concept of sliding reedplates in a harmonica goes back at least to 1892, when a patent was issued to one Franz Jacob for a tremolo-type harmonica that used it to achieve extra chords. There was another patent along similar lines from Rheinhold Friedel in 1925 - but nothing came of these early designs, and the idea fell into obscurity. The application of sliding the draw reedplate on 10-hole diatonic harps for extra note bending was invented by my good friend Zombor Kovacs, a clever harmonica-playing engineer from Budapest, Hungary. He made a prototype in 2006 that worked, but not well enough for his liking. Here are some photos: In 2017, with Zombor's blessing, I decided to re-examine this idea and see if it could be improved. My Mk1 SlipSlider had many innovations: the main one being the use of magnets, to hold and locate the parts together. My improved Mk2 SlipSlider retains the use of magnets, but is otherwise closer to Zombor's original concept. (Thanks also to Canadian Paul Bowering who, inspired by Zombor's and my models, made his own one from a Hohner Special 20. Inspired in turn by Paul's one, I adapted and refined the making process to create my SlipSlider Mk2).

Understanding the Concept

The stock Richter diatonic harp is a very expressive instrument, but it has some limitations. The main one is that only 8 of the 20 reeds can be bent in pitch: holes 1,2,3,4,6 draw, and 8,9,10 blow. That's because these are the only holes where the blow and draw notes are a tone or more apart, allowing for an interactive-reed bend between them. The high reed in each hole will bend, but the low one won't - because it doesn't have a lower-pitched reed to bend down to. But what if you could somehow move reeds around so that the non-bending reeds were in the same airstream as a lower reed, thus allowing them to bend? That's the concept behind the patent-pending SlipSlider harmonica.

My first two SlipSliders Mk1 and Mk2 literally allowed the player to move the entire lower draw reedplate and coverplate from left to right. They both worked great (see their respective Tabs above), but players found this shape-shifting of the harmonica rather disconcerting! My Mk3 model finally gives you a SlipSlider with a fixed outer shape. All the sliding action happens INSIDE that harp, with the movement controlled by your thumb via a small joystick in the lower coverplate. It's far more user-friendly, but has the same fantastic musical benefit. Think of it as your Joystick to Heaven! It has three positions:

1. DEFAULT CENTRAL POSITION - The harp plays exactly like any standard Richter harmonica.
2. RIGHT SHIFT POSITION - familiar feeling blow bends in the middle and lower octaves, plus bigger blow bends in the top octave.
3. LEFT SHIFT POSITION - Familiar feeling draw bends in the top octave, plus bigger draw bends in the lower two octaves.

The upper octave draw bends and middle octave blow bends give the harp incredible new expression, and feel very natural. That's because your familiar scale layout is simply shifted to new places on the harp! The best way to understand it is by looking at this chart, for a Richter tuned harp in the key of C:

RIGHT SHIFT - Notice how the middle octave scale holes 4-7 is now EXACTLY the same as standard Richter scale holes 7-10. This means you can now play ALL your favourite high end blow bending licks in the middle octave. Jimmy Reed style comes to the middle octave - wow, how cool is that!

LEFT SHIFT - Notice how the upper octave scale holes 6-9 is now EXACTLY the same as standard Richter scale holes 3-6. This means that all your easy middle octave bends, warbles, chord vamping can now be played the same way in the high end of the harp! You don't even need to think about it - just do that left shift, imagine hole 6 is hole 3, and start wailing. It's truly amazing when the penny drops and you grasp how simple it is.

With these two small thumb movements, the Richter harp is utterly transformed! In stock form it has only 8 bends. Now you can bend 16 notes, in places where bends were impossible before. Not only do you have familiar-type blow bends in the middle octave and familiar-type draw bends in the top octave (amazing enough in themselves), you also have very cool new WIDER bends available, These can add a lot of great expression for adventurous players who want to explore for cool new musical effects.

Mk2 FEEDBACK

" The slip slider is an amazing idea. THIS IS INCREDIBLE THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR INVENTING THIS!!!!! THIS COMPLETELY OPENED UP MY WORLD OF HARMONICA AFTER 25 YEARS!!! "

Daniel Cousin, USA (Nov 2018)

" I'm in love with the Special 20 Slip Slider. It really does do everything, and in many instances eliminates the need to overblow or overdraw. I also found some interesting uses for the crazy draw bends. The best part is, it sounds and plays like a normal Richter harp, plus overbends, which is something no other specialty harp can claim as far as I know. Single reed blow bends may also be achieved by sliding partially, which comes in especially handy for bending 4 blow. Its extra bendability makes this an ideal harp for rock tunes, allowing one to really wail on the 6 and 7 blow notes. In the harmonica world, if folks realize the Slip Slider's capabilities, this could be the equivalent of what the invention of the electric guitar was to guitar players. It's that good! I still see a need for standard harps, and will definitely continue using overblows and overdraws for speed runs and licks, but I'm going to be incorporating more Slip Sliders into my playing, especially for melodies. I'm having lots of fun playing accompaniment now as well. The country players would be crazy not to use this harp on recording sessions. There are so many things that open up with the extra bends, and they sound very good and normal, if that makes sense. In other words, they have that same characteristic interactive bend sound one would expect from a draw bend. Overall, this is a killer harp and extremely friendly for melody playing.

Finally, we have a harp that gives us everything we could possibly need, while not compromising the classic playability and sound of a standard harp which we all love. My family and friends keep saying, 'will you please put that harmonica away!' "

Todd Parrott, North Carolina USA (July 2018)
Check out Todd's brilliant playing on his CD "Songs From the Harp", and info on his popular harmonica workshops, session playing etc at his website.

" The S20 SlipSliders are just so much fun to play. I'm totally sold on the magnetic cover attachment, BTW. The S20 had a draw reeds that was gapped a little too closely for me, so I popped off the cover, lifted the reed with a fingernail and stuck the cover back on. The whole thing took just a few seconds. I've already started wondering how practical it would be to redo my main diatonics like this!

Something else I noticed - with the draw reeds shifted to the left on the S20, what was the 5 overblow (now in hole 4) becomes much easier. Hardly an essential feature, but I suppose there might be a situation where one might prefer the overblow to the hole 6 blow bend. "

Pat Missin, UK/USA (July 2018)
Make sure to check out Pat's amazing website, hands down the best harmonica resource on the internet:

Mk1 FEEDBACK

" The harmonica plays like a dream, I was a bit concerned about the air tightness when I first see the concept, but in action, I can overblow 456 and overdraw 789 out of the box, 10 is a bit squealing but I think that's just my technique. This is WAY better than the OOTB crossovers I've had in the past, so the air tightness is definitely not an issue.

In terms of the notes, from my little experience with it, I can now play the b3 in the lower octave which I wasn't able to get with OB, and I can get the same juicy bending trill between the major 7 and root as the PowerBender running in the middle octave when playing 2nd, much stronger than using OB, and much more musical and tonally pleasant.

It is totally a game changer for sure. "

Wenchao Li (May 2018)

" I purchased a SlipSlider Crossover in G a bit ago and have been digging it... Took a bit of time to figure out a method to prevent slipping fingers but in the end I came up with a nice grip system using a few brass finishing washers and a spot of hot glue; it works well and looks great. ... I really appreciate your ingenuity! "

Harp, from Brendan's Forum (May 2018)

" I finally put my SlipSlider together. This is fun. I haven't done much with it yet, just noodled around, and haven't decided yet how I'm going to do the grip modifications, if any. With Thunderbird covers it does pretty well, maybe just a small dab or two of clear E6000 glue on each side will do the trick. In C having the blowbent Eb and Ab available is going to be nice. The ease of disassembly for cleaning and adjusting alone is a great plus. If it works as well in the Lucky 13 regular breath direction models my other harmonicas are going to get dusty. "

CrawfordEs, from Brendan's Forum (May 2018)