[Harp-L] re: Long Throw Slides?:

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joseph Bernard writes:

"Long throw slides = cross tuning? "

Yes.  This should not be confused with "cross" position (2nd  
position) on diatonic harmonicas.  The common terms for the two most  
common types of slider design are "straight tuned" or "short-stroke"  
for one type and "cross tuned" or "long-stroke" for the other as  
Winslow described.  Try this page for more information and best of  
all some pictures:

http://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q32.html'

Winslow wrote:

"Some players feel that wider holes give bigger tone"

To which you responded:

"This is what I'm looking for."


But you seem to have missed the main thrust of Winslow's point when  
he wrote that.  Indeed, this is the entirety of what he wrote on tone  
and slider design:

"Some players feel that wider holes give bigger tone (personally, I  
find no difference, and I always go for a full, loud sound). "

He wasn't agreeing with the idea that wider holes make for a "bigger"  
tone, rather disagreeing with it.  And I agree with Winslow on this.

I don't think that wider holes do much of anything for the tone or  
similar in a chromatic harmonica.  The amount of air the reeds need  
to properly operate is sufficient in straight tuned sliders.  Hole  
size in wind instruments such as the harmonica is an interesting  
area.  Too small a hole will create winding issues which can be  
easily noticed.  But, once the hole is large enough, then increasing  
hole size has no effect.  I believe that the size of the straight  
tuned slider hole is already large enough, and so increasing this as  
in the cross-tuned design has no effect.  At least for reeds the  
pitch and scale found in chromatic harmonicas.





 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
`----'