Re: Removing valves

[wmharps@xxxxxxxxx]

Laurent wrote:
>From what I understand, you can't remove all the valves on a chrom because
>it would become too leaky. 

Valves are typically added to a chromatic to reduce the air loss through the 
opposing reed in a slot, and removing them can make a chrom leak more.  But in 
my experience the biggest culprit of air leaks in a chrom is the mouthpiece, 
especially in the prevalent 270-style design with the three-piece mouthpiece.  
This design makes things worse because the more you try to tighten the screws 
to improve leaks in the mouthpiece assembly, the tighter the action gets on the 
slide, making it stickier and harder to actuate.  You're forced to find a 
compromise that lets the slide move freely without letting too much air through 
the gaps.  Doug Tate's book, "Making Your Harmonica Work Better" (I believe my 
older copy is called "Make Your Harmonica Play Well" -- is that a collectors 
item now? ;-), gives a lot of advice for improving the workings of this type of 
mouthpiece, though the design is still inherently flawed, in my opinion.

I think the CX-12 design is significantly better that it can be more airtight 
and possibly not need the valves so *desperately*, lending itself to the half-
valving (permitting the more expressive two-reed bends we're used to on 
diatonics).  

I think someone should have Brendan build them a half-valved CX-14 tuned in the 
Steve Baker "stretch diatonic" style.  Now THAT would be a harp!

- -tim