Richard is of course genius and I agree that this 30 reed concept should be supported but there's no way I'm spending $175 on a harp only to disable 4/10 of what made it innovative in the first place.
Surely there must be a better way to preserve power in the lower octave. More agressive embossing?
"Exactly which capabilities does the Sub30 lose by taping down the first four sympathetic blow-reeds?"
Blow bends on the first four holes. Two of those notes (the 3- and 4-hole blow bends) are available elsewhere; you lose the notes provided by the 1- and 2-hole blow bends.
@noodles - not to nit-pick but the taped down reeds are DRAW reeds. They of course interact with the blow reeds to allow the extra bends.
Now since these are sympathetic draw reeds they solely come into play when utilizing these new bends. As such they can be gapped very low; basically with zero offset. This in itself helps save air and increase power. Just enough air flows past the sympathetic reeds to activate them.
What you can't do is completely seal them off which returns those holes to standard diatonic function; draw bends but no new blow bends.
Richard's taping tweak on the Suzuki UltraBend is an excellent compromise for getting the traditional feel of the Richter low octave while retaining the fully chromatic bending ability higher up. It should especially appeal to Blues tongue blockers (especially if the lower 4 inside valves are removed as well).
As others have pointed out, not a lot of chromatic ability is lost because the semitone blow bends on holes 3 and 4 are otherwise available.
It's one of many interesting custom set-ups possible on the UltraBend. If you want to go in the opposite direction, you can maximise the new blow bending possibilities in the low octave by altering the tuning.
Raising the 3 blow a tone (as in Paddy Richter and Melody Maker) is a good way to give you easy chromatic scales from hole 2 draw upwards.
If you want to avoid the duplication of the 3 draw and the 4 blow semitone bend (both B on a C harp), you could drop the auxiliary reed in hole 4 to A. This gives you a full-tone bend on 4 blow to Bb.
These are just a couple of examples. For those who enjoy using alternate tunings the new possibilities are enticing! I'm loving the 30 reed format on the PowerBender.
But for the vast majority who are happy to stick with Richter, Richard Sleigh's easy tape tweak is a good way to retain the best of the old bottom end while exploring the cool new bends higher up. The new bends from holes 5-10 on the UltraBend transform Richter tuning into a far more flexible and expressive tuning than it was before.
Interesting video and comments. I did this tape-tweak on my SUB30 A, it works great. Its not needed on the higher key harps, from my experience.
The harmonica also get a different sound when swapping cover plates, I personal like Olive most, so I use them.
Really great to hear R. Sleigh play tongue-block styled bluesharp on the SUB30! ---------- http://www.filipjers.com
Last Edited by on Sep 10, 2012 7:00 AM
I infer from the comments of those who already have the SUB that the slot tolerances are a little loose. This is interesting given Suzuki's high standard of quality. I'm curious if it is related to the difficulty in squeezing two slots in the one hole.
Further, is it fixable? For those of us who are comfortable working on our harps, (not pro level customizers but decent tweakers) can a round of embossing & gapping make the SUB more 'normal'.
Last Edited by on Sep 10, 2012 2:17 PM
The slot tolerances and reed profiles aren't bad at all. It is just that there are 30 reeds to keep track of, IMO. Plus you have valves and non-traditional reeds.
The instruction guide was good for explaining the basics of how to set the sympathetic reeds, and what to do if there was unwanted noises. it is just a complicated instrument.
I did way more to it then typical embossing/gapping, but I really wanted to see how it ticked and if I could get it to play like the customs Brendan had at SPAH.
Suffice to say, I failed in that execution, lol. That isn't fair as he had his own harps that were not official SUB30's. To be real honest, the playability felt very Suzuki to me and the extra bends played very well in comparison to the regular notes, so in that regard it was consistent. Holes 1-3 play fine, but not like a Marine Band. 4-9 play really consistent and smooth (not the timbre I go for, but guys who like dark harps will love it)...10 has been tricky to gap.
I wouldn't refer to it as leaky, but it has a soft feel to it. It felt like an old SP20 to me. I generally don't like recessed combs, but like that this one is rounded. I love the look of the covers. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
