[Harp-L] Re: New wind saver valve leather

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you check the archives you'll find that it was Pat Missin who  
first developed the ultrasuede (or as he calls them, microfibre)  
valves that have been mentioned.  He then showed these to P.T. Gazell  
at a convention and P.T. took to them rather quickly.  Which makes  
sense, because when Pat used them on the customized 280 he did for me  
before all this, I immediately decided they were the best valves I'd  
yet tried.  And I'd tried everything (teflon, micropore, etc...),  
except leather.

They can have some problems in the lowest range of a 280, but I  
haven't tried a spring system yet to fix that.  Overall they simply  
work and don't give problems.  I notice no significant change in  
attack or tone whatsoever; if they weren't sealing properly I don't  
think you'd have a softer attack or mellower tone, you'd have  
noticeable leakage.  But this is hard to determine since all the  
harps I have these valves on have been worked on by Pat, so are  
significantly far from standard and I can make no real comparisons  
(and have no desire to remove these valves and put on others for a  
test).  However, I have noticed that they will droop some over time  
depending on how you store the harmonica.  I suggest always storing a  
harmonica with these valves on it's end (either mouthpiece or  
opposite) as this way the valves will not be effected by gravity and  
droop.  This isn't a major problem, just something to be aware of.

Hope this helps.


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