[Harp-L] SUB 30 observations

[Richard Sleigh <rharp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been playing an A SUB 30 extensively for about a month, and working on it a bit from time to time. For me taping the extra reeds in the first octave and creating a hybrid harmonica made this a harmonica I could play immediately with confidence and strong tone response.  When I was building my frankenstine experimental 40 reed harps in the 80s, I remember that the lowest reeds were always the ones that caused the most problems, so switching to standard diatonic mode on the SUB 30 seemed perfectly logical to me, and I was instantly pleased with the way it worked.

I have only been doing the easiest tweaks on this harmonica, cause I just don't have the time right now to go nuts working on this thing.

I did remove the wind-saver on hole 1, and with a couple of minutes of fiddling around, got the overblow to work really well, so now the harp is fully chromatic.

The biggest thing for me to get used to is that the top octave response is flipped - the blow bends are a little less strong than the draw bends, and I have to finesse them more to avoid the third reed kicking in. The draw bends, on the other hand, are super strong and I can hit them as hard as I want to with no risk of problems. 

Blow 7 on the SUB 30 is instant train wreck if I am playing normal strength and bend it....  

Bottom line, this is a new instrument that has new sweet spots and some danger zones. I have made plenty of horrible sounds come out of my Marine Bands over the years, and gradually learned the ropes so I can play freely in some positions and be able to spontaneously invent stuff that surprises me while automatically avoiding the clams and nasty sounding stuff...

Once I get the new physical aspects of the SUB 30 response into muscle memory I'll be able to do the same with this harp. It's been a long strange trip getting to this point, and I am loving the ride at the moment.

Richard Sleigh

P.O. Box 23
Boalsburg PA 16827

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