Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

The evolution of an original idea from Zombor Kovacs (with some inspiration from Joel Andersson and great help from Andre Coelho), the SlipSlider MK3 is the culmination of years of thought and experimentation. It retains all the great qualities of the traditional Richter harmonica whilst endowing it with magical new powers!

Here are a couple of initial videos that might be of interest:

JOYSTICK LEFT-SHIFT DEMO
https://youtu.be/VP-oBb2jWPs

JOYSTICK RIGHT-SHIFT DEMO
https://youtu.be/YbRGDvMmFdI

Of course on a customized version you could add top octave overblows in the Left-shift position, and middle octave overdraws in the Right-shift position, for even more fun

More videos coming soon. More info on the webpage:

https://www.brendan-power.com/SlipSlider.php

Demo of full 3 octave chromatic scales on a standard Richter diatonic harp with blow and draw bends alone... Nothing is lost: overblows/overdraws are still available.
https://youtu.be/Nem2KXmOynA

Nice! The videos really show the advantages of this approach. The new design does seem more ergonomic, and I suppose it's a bit less intimidating to people who are a bit more on the – shall we say – traditional side.

I've been using my (Paddy) slip sliders quite a bit lately, and they're really growing on me! 4ᵗʰ position paddy is very good for playing many traditional tunes, and has nice chords that can be thrown in, but before I've often resorted to 3ʳᵈ position for tunes that need a bit more soul and expression. With the slip slider I can get the best of both worlds: Fat chords and a complete minor scale AND bends up to the root, fifths and sevenths AND bends up to the other notes as well!

All this said, when I need more SlipSliders I'd probably prefer the MK2 model if it would still be available. I really like to be able to quickly pick the instrument apart without any tools. I've found I clean my SlipSliders much more frequently than my other harps, and sometimes I leave them open to dry after playing. If I'm playing any of my other harps and some hair or gunk get stuck in a reed I'm more likely to put it down and pick up the next one until I can be bothered to break my playing flow to take it apart. With the MK2 SlipSliders it's easily fixed in seconds.

I am digging the hell out of my new slipslider.
I'm finding it hard to put down.

That said, being a bit heavy-handed, I'm just
getting to the point where I don't accidentally
pull back on the joy-stick sometimes, tilting the
reed plate up when sliding.

Now, I'm finding, if I'm not really careful,
I have trouble avoiding getting an audible click
when the joystick slides back to center position.

I imagine this is a clumsy-person problem,
because I can avoid the click and the tilting with
just the right amount of pressure/tension on the
joystick, but does anyone have any suggestions
to make this easier for the agility-challenged?

I found a fix for my tilting reedplate problem:
I put a small rectangle of gorilla tape,
which is pretty slippery, just overhanging
the joystick slot and folded around it the edge.
the thickness of the tape is just enough to allow
the joystick to move freely but prevents it from
rocking to one side.