Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

"Regular Breath Tuning" was a name I gave to my first ever alternate tuning back around 1980, and I recorded my first album 'Country Harmonica' with it. https://www.brendan-power.com/CountryHarmonica.php But now people are using the term with a generic, wider meaning. 'Regular Breath' now refers to ...

Thanks Dom! It's certainly simpler to use: just one easy button push gives all the new bends (instead of the more awkward twin opposite moves of the SlipSlider). And the high draw bends stay located in the same mouth hole Instead of shifting down one, which is easier to remember. Plus it's good for ...

I'm proud to announce the MORBENDZ: a radical new diatonic harmonica, and the first harp to be released in my X-Reed partnership with Andre Coelho. The name says it all: 14 easy bends (instead of 8 on a standard Richter harp). It's possible because of the combination of several innovative design fea...

Triona: thanks for your kind comments.

Since I know the JDR people from meeting them at trade fairs in the past, I've passed on the tuning/slider suggestion, plus a few other ideas for improving the Trochilus. It's already good, but can still be better

Good thinking on the way to test quickly. TBH I think you're putting too much weight on reducing the number of millimetres between mouth and reeds. Compared to a normal chromatic (especially the modern Suzuki or CX-12 inspired ones), it's already quite a bit less distance on the Trochilus. As long a...

In my opinion, JDR made a mistake with the tuning layout of the Trochilus. Due to the comb design, the two blow/draw pairs in each mouth hole are adjacent to each other, separated by a comb divider opening to a slide hole. Since the slider is pushed from the right and moves right to left, they shoul...

"I imagine a vertically shifting mouthpiece would also allow for an improved economy of motion over a traditional slider as well." I'm not so sure, Dom. I've tried all three types of hole shifting discussed above, and always returned to the slider. The non-slider concept is good in the sense that i...

Well done Marty! The next one you do will be faster

I still think a customised chromatic harmonica is the best solution, and available right now. However, you said: Yeah, I was thinking about using slider for that. It's not ideal though cause sometimes I want to play harmonica in a holder with my concertina. There's a solution for that: Vern Smith's ...

How's $2.50 for affordable? l020458_s_01_9360.jpg A basic so-called "child's hacksaw" will work well to cut up reedplates, and is exactly what I used back in 1980 to make my 11-hole harps. Although I use more high-tech reedplate slicing methods these days, I still have one in my workshop and use it ...