Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

You can make your own modular reed harps with a bit of effort, by slicing up regular harmonica reedplates. Like others I thought this could be a great idea and tried it a long time ago (1990) - but my test harp didn't sound good, so I gave up. However I just tested it quickly again yesterday and fou...

I meant put it near the reed when it's not in use. Eg. For the 5 raised draw in Country Tuning - you can lower the tuning lo standard Richter by sticking on the correct size dab of Blu Tack you have sitting ready nearby, back on the reed.

I'm glad to hear you're getting into re-tunings of the new Solo and PowerChromatic Lucky 13 harps Sachlaw. They lend themselves to some nice options: the same tuning in different keys, alternate tunings like Diminished, or the above with small variations... Using Blu-tack is a great way to do minor ...

Here are some photos of the modular-reed harmonica prototype.

Hmmm... photos are not showing, will come back on this.

I made a prototype of the single-reed reedplate harmonica today, using some concertina-type reeds sent to me by a friend (see photos). Sounds OK as-is, but it needs valving to work properly. Because the reeds are larger than normal harmonica reeds, there is a bigger gap around them for air to escape...

Thanks for asking Lizzie. There are a few main areas I'm focussing on right now: LIVE MIDI RECORDING I'm preparing to make some new instructional material (videos, books etc). A primary element of such material is music notation with associated harmonica tablature. In order to generate the tab autom...

Certainly Thomas, the Lucky 13 can be customized for overbending like any other harmonica. I recommend learning how to do it yourself, as it will give you control of the process so you can adjust the tiny details to suit your playing. Richard Sleigh makes special embossing tools and has done a serie...

The D PowerChromatic starts on D3, it's lower then the G.

Only D and G keys available in PC at present. But you can easily play in the key of C on both of them using draw bends.

Out of interest: If you want all chromatic notes without bends, why not play a chromatic harmonica?