[Harp-L] individual reed-plates

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Individual reed plates, where a single reed is mounted on a single  
plate as opposed to multiple reed plates are actually quite common.  
As has been stated, this is the typical form for reed-organs of all  
sorts (suction, pressure, harmoniums, Vocalions, etc...).  It is also  
the standard for Concertinae, both the English and Anglo models (not  
sure about the Bandoneon or Chemnitzer varieties). Most accordions  
use a variation on this theme, with each melody section reed-plate  
containing both a press and a pull reed (think blow/draw) and the  
chord section often made up of all the reeds for a particular chord  
mounted on one plate.  I believe a few variants (Bayans, and maybe  
Garmons, IIRC) mount all the melody reeds on a single plate like a  
harmonica, but that is rare.  When free-reeds are encountered in  
organs, they are invariably of an individual reed plate style.

Moreover, the idea of individual reed plates for the harmonica is not  
new.  It was perhaps the key feature of the American-made harmonicas  
sold under the "All-American" label (the other obvious feature was  
that they were primarily made out of bakelite, an early plastic).   
These have been talked about on harp-l before, but the main features  
where individual reed plates for each reed and that these were  
mounted vertically rather than horizontally.  A picture shows this  
better:

http://www.patmissin.com/gallery/gallery10.html


These are fascinating beasts which show up on eBay in several forms  
every so often (I've got a diatonic and an octave-"bass" all-blow  
type).  It's a brilliant idea, which allows you to create many  
different styles of tunings and layouts on one body form very  
easily.  They are considerably larger than a standard Richter  
diatonic (a little wider hole-spacing than an XB-40, though  
considerably thinner both front-to-back and side-to-side than that),  
but very comfortable to play do to the ergonomic design.  As for  
tone, they sound like any other unvalved harmonica--like a Richter  
when in that configuration or like a Weiner-octave when in that  
style.  I'm sure they'd sound like a Weiner tremolo if so set-up.

A truly revolutionary way of looking at the basic harmonica, a shame  
it didn't catch on an as alternative format.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
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