[Harp-L] How the Turboslide actually works

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I saw Brendan's video with the Turbo Slide harmonica and that got me wondering how it works.. and I watched Dr. Antaki's video that said the magnetic force "softened the springiness of the reed." That explanation didn't really click in my head, so I pulled this strong magnet off the refrigerator, took a Seydel with some steel reeds and did some experimenting to see what's going on. 
My findings:

The magnetic force applied to the reed has the same effect as adding weight to the reed.  If you apply magnetic force to the free end, it drops in pitch. If you apply to the rivet end, the reed RAISES in pitch. 
 I noticed that on Antaki's videos the bends sounded a little sharp, from my experiments I could never get the reed to go down a full half step. In my experiments it approached around 25 cents sharp, the reeds choked and there was nothing I could do about it, they just flat choked - if you were using a magnet a little more appropriately chosen than one you just pulled off the fridge, I would assume you could get a little flatter - but to me, it is obvious there is a bending floor.  
Now what is really interesting to me- if you apply a weaker magnetic force at a specific point - the only way I could vary the strength of the magnetic field was by varying distance, something weird happens. Before the field becomes strong enough to change the pitch- right at the point where it happens, there is a significant change in tone. It's as significant as when you close a side vent, there's a loss of treble. This could only be because of a change in air flow and I find it very interesting.
 
David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com


Elk River Harmonicas Forum now available via Iphone app, www.elkriverharmonicas.com/forum
 
David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com


Elk River Harmonicas Forum now available via Iphone app, www.elkriverharmonicas.com/forum