Re: [Harp-L] purpose of windsavers

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Windsavers (aka valves, aka flaps) save wind, as the name implies.

Air can leak out harmonicas instead of going to the reed you're trying to play. Even if you have a good seal between reedplates and body (and in the slider and mouthpiece on chromatics) and reed gaps are well adjusted, whenever you have a blow reed and a draw reed in the same hole, some of the blow air will leak out around the draw reed and vice versa.

Each reed is riveted to the face of a flat, thin metal plate called a reedplate, with a slot cut into the reedplate under the reed. The slot allows the reed to swing through without hitting anything as it vibrates. The slot also lets air flow through and cause the reed to vibrate.

If you mount a little plastic flap over a reed slot on the opposite face of the reedplate, it will seal off that reed slot when you play the opposite breath. Here's how it works:

Blow reeds are always mounted on the inside of the hole you breathe through, so the blow reed valve is always on the outside (on the opposite side of the reedplate). When you play a draw reed, your inhaled breath will pull the blow reed valve flat against the blow reed slot, sealing it off and allowing all the air to flow to the draw reed.

Draw reeds are always mounted on the outside of a hole, so the draw reed valve is always on the inside. When you play a blow reed, your exhaled breath will push the draw reed valve flat against the draw reed slot, sealing it off and sealing it off and allowing all the air to flow to the blow reed.

A harmonica with valves on both the blow and the draw reeds is said to be fully valved - every reed plays in isolation. This gives a pure, concentrated tone. However, it also prevents the complex interactions between blow and draw reeds that produce the characteristic sound of bending notes on the diatonic harmonica. (You can bend notes on a valved harp, it just doesn't have the same rich sound.)

Some players will valve only half the reeds on harmonicas in order to allow some of the blow and draw reeds to interact during bending. Such harmonicas are called "half valved." 

Suzuki's Promaster model is a half-valved diatonic. Half-valving has the advantage of allowing you to bend all 20 reeds down in pitch, not just the usual 10 (Draw 1 through 6, Blow 7 through 10). However, the valved bends on Blow 1-6 and Draw 7-10 sound and behave differently as they involve only one reed.

Some players, notably Brendan Power, also will half-valve chromatic harmoncias by removing the outside valves. This allows the blow reeds to participate when you bend the draw notes. You sacrifice some bending range (the notes won't bend as far) but you gain a more complex tone.

Don't try fully de-vavling a chromatic. It will become too leaky to play. Chromatics lose air through the mouthpiece assembly and need valves.

Hope this helps.

Winslow



Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Wed, 5/20/09, Micheal Murray <jazzharmonica@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Micheal Murray <jazzharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] purpose of windsavers
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 10:45 AM

            Hi,

                      I was pondering on this question what are windsavers
all about and what purpose do they serve?





                               Jazzharmonica
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