Re: Plastic reedplates

[Pat Missin <pat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Keith Freeman wrote:
>
>> They also made a unique
>> plastic harmonica with brass reeds called the All-American. It does
>> not have reedplates. The brass reeds are mounted individually in
>> vertical slots behind each hole. It also had a removable mouthpiece.
>> You could easily replace a single reed by removing one and slipping a
>> new one into the slot. The overall shape was that of a diminuitive
>> CX-12! This harp had surprisingly good quality sound, bending easily.
>
>Interesting. Did it still have blow and draw reeds?

Yes - and by putting a reed in the wrong way around, you could
accidentally turn a blow reed into a draw reed!

FWIW, the reeds in the second picture on this page are from the
All-American:

http://www.patmissin.com/history/whatis.html

Obviously this arrangement made it easy to mess around with the tuning
of the instrument. The model I have is the All American Chromatic,
which has the same construction as their diatonic models, but blowing
gives you the notes of the C major scale and drawing gives you the
notes of the C# major scale. Obviously, with only ten holes, this
gives the instrument a very limited range.

 -- pat.