Re: [Harp-L] Bass harmonica - chromatic (and baritone)

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Accordion bass reeds use windsavers, so that part is practical. Accordions also use slide-like mechanisms to select among various reed banks (octave, tremolo, etc.).

However air leakage through slides is a bigger concern on harmonicas. Accordion register slides fit fairly loosely, and in the environment of the big air supply on an accordion bellows this is OK. However, on harmonicas with the relatively puny resource of human lungs, slide leakage is critical. The bigger the surface area of a slide, the more leakage, no matteer how closely fitted the parts.

By the way, Brendan stopped making his lowered chromatics. Chromatic reeds are just too small to vibrate optimally an octave below their original pitch because they're carrying a huge load of solder at that point. Reeds need to be only marginally larger to vibrate much lower - as shown in the reeds of the Polyphonia No. 7, but the difference is big enough that it requires a reedplate that is deeper front to back, and, if the hole spacing is remain the same as on a chromatic, wider slots stamped into the reedplate with proportionally less surface between the slots to bear the brunt of stamping, with a higher danger of ruining the reedplate in the stamping process.

These problems likely have solutions, but no manufacturer as yet has seen the profit in addressing them. Yet among players, the ideas of a baritone harmonica (an octave below a tenor, i.e., with Hole 1 blow 2 octaves below middle C) and of a slide bass keep coming up time and time again.

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

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

Resident expert at bluesharmonica.com

Harmonica instructor, jazzschool.com

Columnist, harmonicasessions.com

--- On Wed, 4/28/10, Eugene Ryan <ryan.eugene@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Eugene Ryan <ryan.eugene@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Bass harmonica - chromatic
To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 3:31 AM

Hello all,

I recently acquired a Suzuki bass harmonica and it's a super instrument with
a great sound.  I'm just starting out on it, and it will take some time to
get familar with it. Jumping between decks accurately is a challenge.

It strikes me that if you could get the same thing in a chromatic body
("hello, I'm a bass in a chromatic's body, pleased to meet you" :-)), it
might make navigation easier than jumping between decks. There were the
Hohner Polyphonia harmonicas, and there are the Tombo bass harmonicas - but
none of them go as low as the Hohner or Suzuki twin-deck basses (which
starts on the same E as a bass guitar).

There may be mechanical reasons that might mean it's not possible to make a
chromatic like this.  The Suzuki/Hohner twin-deck bass harmonicas have two
reeds for each note, each reed being tuned an octave apart - it would be
difficult to fit those reeds, and then double the number required by using a
slide mechanism.  And if you don't have the upper note in the pair, it takes
longer to activate the lower reed.  Then perhaps having blow and draw notes
that low could be problematic, with windsaver issues.  And more issues that
others have probably thought of...

There was a good discussion of this a few years ago on this forum - I wonder
how far anyone got?
http://www.harp-l.org/pipermail/harp-l/2006-January/msg00122.html

I understand that Brendan Power made some extremely low chromatics by
soldering.  Anyone know how low they went and if they were successful?

Thanks for your help,
Eugene