Removing valves

["'Honking' Dave Shannon" <honking_dave@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I read in the recently published Little Walter
biography that Walter would remove the
wind-savers/valves from certain holes (possibly all)
on his chromatic harmonica. 

Well, I don't know if it's true or not, but does
anyone else do this? If ya do, what do you gain or
lose by doing it?

I'm guessing this is to help bending when playing
blues in 3 position (D on C chrom), as Walter may not
have liked using the slide.

Thanks

Dave

PS Apologies if this has already been raised on harp-l

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The Odyssey Blues Quartet 
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