[Harp-L] Re: octave - and baritone - chromatic

["rick epping" <rickepping@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sometimes I find the high range of my octave diatonics to be too shrill.  I
have consequently begun building them with the the top three or four holes
tuned to unison instead of octave by dropping the high octave reeds down an
octave to match the low octave reeds.  This modification requires longer
reeds for those on the high octave reedplate.  It's remarkable how
unnoticeable the transition from octave to unison voicing is while
playing.

I got the idea from Conjuncto accordion players, who often change the
tremolo reeds on the lowest right-hand notes to reeds an octave higher,
tuning the remaining tremolo reeds to unison, in order to bring out the low
notes.

Best regards,
Rick


On 11/5/07, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx <harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx > wrote:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 16:05:57 -0500
> From: Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] octave - and baritone - chromatic
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Message-ID: < AACF0EE9-ADE4-4C3A-B50C-A913C7059979@xxxxxxxxxxx>
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>
> Winslow writes:
>
> "While the present body, reedplate, and reed dimensions of the Suzuki
> tremolo chromatic are not suitable for building an octave chromatic,
> they are very close."
>
>
> Except not easily modifiable, either after-market or by Suzuki.  As
> is you essentially have the same reed doubled in the trem-chrom,
> whereas for an ideal octave-chrom you'd rather have the two reeds
> scaled differently--one higher, one lower.  Now, reeds can be scaled
> to work at various pitches with the same overall length and
> thickness, but the other problem with a 64 is what do you do at the
> top octave--it gets very, very high and I'm not sure that the reeds
> can really be retuned to produce those pitches efficiently and with
> decent response when they are scaled for an octave lower.  Were the
> trem-chrom a 48 design, things might be easier to modify by making it
> an octave-chrom with one set covering the tenor range and the other
> the standard range.
>
>
> "The Hohner "bass" (really more of a baritone) Polyphonia has reeds only
> a few mm longer and maybe 1mm wider that the lowest reeds in a
> four-octave chromatic. Those reed dimensions could be incorporated into
> the lowest octave of either a baritone slide chromatic or a single-comb
> octave chromatic built in the same manner as the SCT-128."
>
>
> The Leo Shi "bass" also has reeds scaled to the baritone range which
> while large (I haven't measured) are not so huge as to make the idea
> of a baritone slider chromatic using those scales ridiculous.  The
> question is not whether it can be done, IMO, but rather will anyone
> do it.  Indeed, I've thought of ways to modify various things out
> there which could be made into a baritone chromatic, but these are
> not as elegant as if something was simply designed to be such from
> the start.
>
> Personally, for an octave-chrom I was thinking along the lines of the
> tenor-standard range mixture rather than the baritone range, but I'd
> be happy with any of these seeing the light of day.  In any event,
> whether one wants the octave to be lower or higher than the current
> range of the SCT, there are significant problems involved with
> attempting to modify it to become an octave rather than tremolo
> instrument.
>
>
> "Dripping the pitch of existing chromatics with solder has proved
> unsatisfactory, if I read correctly what Brendan Power has had to say
> on the subject; response is just too sluggish. "
>
>
> Which is logical and can be seen when solder is used to drop reeds on
> diatonics (as in the Super-Low Seydels).  Reeds are ideally scaled
> for a certain pitch range (actually, ideally for a single pitch, but
> that's not practical) and trying to extend them too far below this by
> means of solder or the like will effect their responsiveness, timbre
> and volume.  This is true for all free reeds regardless of the
> instrument in question.
>
>
> "But a lsight change in
> reed dimensions changes all that; the bass Poly is plenty responsive."
>
>
> It's also an all-blow instrument without a mouthpiece, slider or
> anything else which might leak air.  It is likely that the factors of
> actually making a working bari-chrom will effect issues of
> responsiveness and the like even if the scaling of the reeds is
> correct--perhaps to a more significant degree than between a standard
> range chromatic and a diatonic, perhaps less even, until it is tried
> with a purpose-built design it's hard to say what the issues will
> be.  But, you are correct in that there is no reason baritone range
> reeds cannot be properly scaled so as to be every bit as efficient
> for their pitch as are reeds in other ranges.
>
>
> "But it means new reedplate and comb dimensions; the longer Poly reeds
> won't fit on a standard 64 reedplate."
>
>
> Which is why I'd like to see some harmonica company build a purpose-
> designed baritone chromatic, as Suzuki finally built a purpose-
> designed tremolo-chromatic.
>
>
>
>
>  ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
> ()  ()
> `----'
>
>
>