Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Thanks Triona. The CBH16 is a famous and highly innovative chromatic harmonica, albeit with some curious flaws (long distance to the reeds being the main one). If does have a clever and unique slide system, but the slide is on the front of the instrument. They have not been made for a long time, but...

Yes, there are some mysterious effects going on as soon as you match reeds and channels with your oral cavity, whether before or after the reed.

Looking forward to chatting later this week Paul

This is basically the design I've been exploring. Inspired by the Machino Tone, but with a rear slider instead of baffle. Its attractions are: 1. No front mouthpiece or slide assembly. This means the mouth is closer to the reeds, always a good design principle. 2. Slimmer overall thickness, since th...

Hmmm... I have a rear slider chromatic working well in terms of selection of clear notes, but the sound is not as good as the Machino Tone, or a normal chrom. It sounds rather constricted. I'd normally assume that was because of the 12 partitions in each coverplate, but since the Machino Tone has th...

@ Malarz: They're working for me today, hopefully for you too?

Depends what you call 'major surgery'. That looks to me like a pretty easy change from a Lucky 13 in PowerDraw tuning: only 3 reeds to change. If you develop the skills it would take under 5 minutes. Certainly the major 7th in cross harp would be available as a partial bendbin the middle octave, but...

Early chromatics such as the ones on those links avoided the long distance to the reeds. I hope I can update their designs for a new model along similar lines.

After a long hiatus the Rn'D bug has returned, and I've recently been spending time happily tinkering away in my workshop again. The main idea I'm exploring is how to make a chromatic harmonica with a different air shifting mechanism to the conventional front mouthpiece and slider. For inspiration I...

Here's another 'Bikes and Harps' track, a live recording from 2004, featuring a chromatic with half-valved setup in PowerChromatic Tuning. Harmonica is in Bb, tune's in F:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJnllHfSSVo

Thanks ken! Will update you via email.

BP