Anyone Playing the Turboslide?
Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 1:47 am
Jim Antaki is someone I admire: a true harmonica innovator who has a day job as a world-renowned biomedical engineer. He's created many original harmonica products, and has been working for more than 20 years on his ELX electric harmonica: a Special 20 with optical sensors under the covers that sense the reeds' vibration.
But for me his coolest idea is the Turboslide, which uses moveable magnets to depress the pitch of steel blow reeds on the Seydel Session Steel:
http://www.turboharp.com/th-09-ss-turbo ... ssionsteel
In Richter tuning its only really useful in holes 1-6, where the blow is lower than the draw note. But in PowerBender or PowerDraw the Turboslide works great in all holes 1-10. Though it is intended to give chromatic notes on the blows, the unintended happy consequence is that it gives deeper draw bends as well. I explore that in this video:
TurboSlide in PowerBender Tuning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVMrzPbVXsg
It works great in half-valved setup too. To my mind this combination is one of the best ways for diatonic players to play chromatically and get a lot of extra soul from the 10 hole harp, all with a simple push of the button.
But for me his coolest idea is the Turboslide, which uses moveable magnets to depress the pitch of steel blow reeds on the Seydel Session Steel:
http://www.turboharp.com/th-09-ss-turbo ... ssionsteel
In Richter tuning its only really useful in holes 1-6, where the blow is lower than the draw note. But in PowerBender or PowerDraw the Turboslide works great in all holes 1-10. Though it is intended to give chromatic notes on the blows, the unintended happy consequence is that it gives deeper draw bends as well. I explore that in this video:
TurboSlide in PowerBender Tuning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVMrzPbVXsg
It works great in half-valved setup too. To my mind this combination is one of the best ways for diatonic players to play chromatically and get a lot of extra soul from the 10 hole harp, all with a simple push of the button.