Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Retuning becomes very fast with practice and the right tools. You could do the change in under 5 minutes from full assembled to reassembled and ready to play if you learn the skills.

Yes, transpose down. Use some slow-down software to hear the tune in G, and then learn by ear.

Personally I don't think so, because you'd have to constantly bend the 5 draw in the most common positions used in Irish music. These are, in order of use: First, Fourth, Third, Second If you wanted to play Melody Maker based in 2nd Position, the equivalent positions would be: Second, Fifth, Fourth,...

We started discussing these harps in the "Any News" thread, but I think they deserve a thread of their own.

I just posted a video demonstrating a couple of variations:
https://youtu.be/jejsiCD172E

There are some interesting queries posted in the Comments by Winslow Yerxa and others.

Yes. It's based on 12 chromatic notes per octave over 4 octaves (the range from hole 1 of a G harp to hole 10 of an F# harp). Actually it should be 48 reeds to cover all the notes, not 47. This is the stock of reeds a company would need to keep. They could be blow or draw reeds depending on orientat...

I mentioned earlier that a manufacturer of modular reed harmonicas would only need 47 reeds to cover every key harp in 4 octaves, from G to F#. That's if they use the same reeds for blow and draw breaths. The simplest way would be to adopt the normal blow reed configuration where the reed is attache...

I was contacted by a Brazilian player called Gaspar Vianna, who has apparently been using modular reedplates secured by coverplate bars for some time. Hopefully he will send some photos of his harps to check out.

You could slide draw plates in from the rear, but what about blow plates? They have a reed hanging under them. You'd need a slot in the comb to accommodate it, then a way to re-seal the slot. It would all take a lot of high precision manufacturing.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Several of you mentioned the desirability of simplifying the reed attachment system from multiple screws to something else. I've been thinking about it too, but right now can't think of anything better. Crawford's idea of a bar pressed down at each end could work - but I imagine getting sufficient c...