Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

The new valving solution is finally here, the Gasket-Valve: http://www.brendan-power.com/GasketValves.php Thanks to all for your patience and trust. 🙏 BTW: with the Gasket-Valve's arrival, my diatonic PowerComb range has lost its primary selling point: the valve pockets, to accommodate the bases of ...

Sorry for the delayed reply Jimbo. Thanks to Edvin for the accurate tuning advice. On the D version: high key Switch-Harps suffer from the dreaded Helmholtz Resonance Coupling phenomenon, which makes the upper octave reeds go significantly flat. If you're playing in the lower two octaves it will be ...

Apologies: I was assuming you meant the Solist Pro 12. I didn't realise Seydel had a Solist Pro 10 hole harp. Just found it on their site, it looks like the Classic. Good news: the Seydel sandwich (1847 type) Gasket-valve will fit all their 10 hole harps, including the Solist Pro. I think I have a S...

Hi Triona,

Sorry, I haven't much experience doing big retuning jobs on Seydels, only harps with brass or phosphor bronze reeds. I suggest contact Bertram for tech advice on steel reeds.

Brendan

Sorry, just saw this thread! I make my high D slide diatonics from C chromatics. On 'New Irish Harmonica' they were Hohner Slide Harps in C tuned up to Paddy Richter Slide Diatonic. Nat long after making that album I switched to Paddy Solo for Irish music. I've tuned up various 12-hole C chroms to t...

Nice idea Edvin! You should propose it to Jim Antaki

This is a great idea! Bertram Becher showed it to me about a year ago, great to see Seydel have now released it

Thanks for your comments. For now we're only releasing the diatonic version. The chromatic Gasket-Valve will require all the existing valves to be pulled off and their glue patches thoroughly removed - which is a job most chrom players will not wish to do, I think. For them it still makes more sense...

I think this is one of my best ideas yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT7-ZAH0W9Q

More Info & Photos here:
https://brendan-power.com/GasketValves.php

Sorry, I was just using the C chrom as an illustration of the generic tuning used in "Sweet Bulgarity", relating it to PowerChromatic in C. This could be used for the tune in a different key if you start on the G draw note. Try that :-) For the video of "Sweet Bulgarity" I retuned a G chrom and star...