[Harp-L] individual reed-plates



Individual reed plates, where a single reed is mounted on a single plate as opposed to multiple reed plates are actually quite common. As has been stated, this is the typical form for reed-organs of all sorts (suction, pressure, harmoniums, Vocalions, etc...). It is also the standard for Concertinae, both the English and Anglo models (not sure about the Bandoneon or Chemnitzer varieties). Most accordions use a variation on this theme, with each melody section reed-plate containing both a press and a pull reed (think blow/draw) and the chord section often made up of all the reeds for a particular chord mounted on one plate. I believe a few variants (Bayans, and maybe Garmons, IIRC) mount all the melody reeds on a single plate like a harmonica, but that is rare. When free-reeds are encountered in organs, they are invariably of an individual reed plate style.

Moreover, the idea of individual reed plates for the harmonica is not new. It was perhaps the key feature of the American-made harmonicas sold under the "All-American" label (the other obvious feature was that they were primarily made out of bakelite, an early plastic). These have been talked about on harp-l before, but the main features where individual reed plates for each reed and that these were mounted vertically rather than horizontally. A picture shows this better:

http://www.patmissin.com/gallery/gallery10.html


These are fascinating beasts which show up on eBay in several forms every so often (I've got a diatonic and an octave-"bass" all-blow type). It's a brilliant idea, which allows you to create many different styles of tunings and layouts on one body form very easily. They are considerably larger than a standard Richter diatonic (a little wider hole-spacing than an XB-40, though considerably thinner both front-to-back and side-to-side than that), but very comfortable to play do to the ergonomic design. As for tone, they sound like any other unvalved harmonica--like a Richter when in that configuration or like a Weiner-octave when in that style. I'm sure they'd sound like a Weiner tremolo if so set-up.


A truly revolutionary way of looking at the basic harmonica, a shame it didn't catch on an as alternative format.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
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