[Harp-L] Narrow Seydel reeds info, for cultural enlightenment purposes

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is for cultural enlightment purposes: 
Most of the Seydels, Solist Pro, etc. have reeds that are slightly wider than Hohners in some holes. I've heard it called the new Seydel slot, but I don't think it is, I have seen prewars with that exact same wider reed configuration. 
Back in the day, I'm talking prewar day, Seydel had two slot configurations, a narrow configuration on the flagship, super-cool prewar Bandmaster and a wider slot on other, non-flagship harps. 
Both configurations have survived, only now it's reversed, wide configuration on the main harps, narrow config on the side harp, there's only one I'm aware of that uses the narrow configuration, the Solist. I've always been partial to the Solist, it's the least-expensive Seydel diatonic, it just always performed really well for me, maybe it's the narow config since I was a lifelong Marine Band player, thus used to a narrower reed. 
I could go on about the pros and cons of narrow reeds.and pros and cons of wide ones, but that's not my plan, I just want to say "this exists," to perhaps enlighten some folks culturally and whatnot. 
The reed slot dimensions below are from Pat Missin's site. You will no doubt notice that the "Older" Seydel slot system that has survived in the Solist is actually NARROWER than the Marine Band and Special 20. While there are two different slot systems, the hole spacing is the same on all Seydels, the same hole spacing they've used since the dawn of harmonica time, or maybe 7 a.m. of harmonica time, depending on how you rank the year 1847 in harmonica history time.
The primary change has been a switch from Just to compromise tuning and a higher reference pitch. The change to compromise has been fairly recent, I don't know when the reference pitch changed, though. 
Measured in Milimeters
OLDER SEYDEL LONG SLOT PLATES
SLOT #    1     2     3     4     5    6      7     8     9    10
LENGTH  16.6  15.6  14.6  13.6  12.6  12.2  11.2  10.1   9.1   8.1
WIDTH    2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  1.7   1.7   1.7   1.7   1.7

OLDER SEYDEL SHORT SLOT PLATES
SLOT #    1     2     3     4     5    6      7     8     9    10
LENGTH  14.5  13.5  12.6  11.5  10.4   9.4   8.4   7.4   7.0   6.5
WIDTH    2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  1.7   1.7   1.7   1.7   1.7   1.7

HOHNER HANDMADE LONG SLOT PLATES
SLOT #    1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
LENGTH  16.6  15.9  14.8  13.9  13.0  12.2  11.3  10.6   9.6    8.5
WIDTH    2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9    1.9

HOHNER HANDMADE SHORT SLOT PLATES
SLOT #    1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
LENGTH  14.8  13.9  13.0  12.2  11.3  10.6   9.6   9.0   8.3    7.6
WIDTH    2.05  2.05  2.05  1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9    1.9

NEWER SEYDEL, WELTMEISTER, BUSHMAN LONG SLOT PLATES
SLOT #    1     2     3     4     5    6      7     8     9    10
LENGTH  16.6  15.6  14.6  13.6  12.6  12.2  11.2  10.1   9.1   8.1
WIDTH    2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05 

NEWER SEYDEL, WELTMEISTER, BUSHMAN SHORT SLOT PLATES
SLOT #    1     2     3     4     5    6      7     8     9    10
LENGTH  14.5  13.5  12.6  11.5  10.4   9.4   8.4   7.4   7.0   6.5
WIDTH    2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05  2.05
Dave
______________________________
Dave Payne Sr.
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com