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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Crazy Harp Inventions!
Crazy Harp Inventions!
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nacoran
6849 posts
Jun 11, 2013
11:06 AM
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Okay, I mentioned a while back that I was working on a harmonica invention. I've decided not to patent it, but it works pretty well. I'm shopping it around to friends in the business, but will probably make a good video so people can do it as a DIY project in the really near future. In the meanwhile, I've got another invention idea, a little crazier than my top secret one. I've tested it enough to prove the idea works, but it needs some ergonomic improvement still that I don't have the tools to do, so I'm just going to put it out there and maybe anyone interested can refine it a little.
Ever see the Asian style of playing where players play to keys of harps at one time? I know there are little clips that you can buy to get them to stay together, or you can master the technique of holding them just right (despite the fact that diatonic covers, with their swooping backs make it tougher than the flat tremolos). Well, I was looking at a comb and suddenly it occurred to me that, by redrilling the holes and turning it backwards...
Yeap, my new mod involves turning the comb backwards. I haven't found the right screws yet, but if you want to give it a try, take the two harps you want to play, and take the one you put on tops bottom cover off, and take the one on the bottoms top cover off... now make a 3 comb sandwich, with the middle one backwards!
You'll have a weird looking harp that stays together. It's 2 harps in one! Well, actually, it's a little more than that, if someone can figure out a tuning for it, because it turns out that if you turn it around backwards you can play the middle comb, which is now a weird composite of the bottom reed plate of the top harp and the top reed plate of the bottom harp!
Technical issues, which I think are surmountable, are:
-the back of the middle comb sticks out a bit farther than I'd like. I've got a round file that I think I could carefully use to create a shallow U shape along the back edge- if it weren't for the longest reed slots you could really go at it round it, but the one hole slot already makes combs a little fragile. Protruding tines would also help.
-holes don't quite line up on all harps. Sp20's, for instance, the coverplate holes don't sit exactly in the middle of the harp, so the sandwiched comb needs it's holes drilled reversed, (just lay a blank comb over a regular comb backwards (make sure you still have the long slots lining up). It looks like MB nail holes will line up okay with each other, and an old MB comb would work well for the middle comb if you are drilling it out for a Sp20 too, since the little wood nail holes shouldn't interfere with the drilled hole you need to make. The little crush protector on the back of standard Sp20 combs gets in the way.
-I haven't found the right screws yet. I haven't really looked, because I have another way to attach everything now (that's my other invention!) It would actually make the whole thing much less crazy. I'll have that video in a couple days.
Why? Well, because I'm trying to become a mad scientist, obviously! If you combine my two inventions, it should work just as well as any other harp clamp for holding two harps together- value added! There is also the great novelty factor. You see, you can keep taking covers off and stacking them and make a super harp. Sure, harp players may giggle when they see all your harps stacked together, but little kids will be wowed! Finally, like I said, you can turn it around and play the weird combination of reeds that this creates in the back. Someone with a mind for tuning might be able to figure out a combination of harps that this would be useful on. You can even do some neat cosmetic things like mixing and matching combs. Ideally, maybe this sandwich comb would have a specially tooled back. Metal combs, if someone was crazy enough to try it, might solve the long reed slot weakness.
Last Edited by nacoran on Jun 11, 2013 11:12 AM
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nacoran
6850 posts
Jun 11, 2013
11:18 AM
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Don't mind the air gaps, that's just because I didn't bother taking the crush struts off the back of the Sp20 combs (top and bottom) or screw the whole thing together. The middle is a standard MB comb. Like I said, you could make them all kinds of crazy colorful, and you can turn it around and play the 'middle' harp, although it's going to have reedplates from two harps on it (which does make for some interesting bending possibilities.)
My other invention may make this whole thing hold together easier, but I've got one technical hurdle there too (for this, the other invention works fine on it's own). The comb does come out pretty close to where your lips need to be. Shaping the back of the middle comb, combined with protruding tines could fix that, I think.
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Martin
367 posts
Jun 11, 2013
11:36 AM
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Interesting. But the lip issue is there, as you´ve noted. I´ve toyed with this myself (on a Neanderthal level ´cause I´m not terribly practical) like probably a lot of us have, and just taped two harps together quite hard, with ... (can´t remember what exactly, think it was small pieces of styrofoam) in-between them.
Not practical: hard to get the things deeply enough into the mouth; also a bit of a bother with the mic.
My interest was just two harps tuned a half step apart, like a standard bass harmonica.
My aim then shifted to construction of a sort of mic holder where you could insert the darned things and make a reasonable cup, but I couldn´t get the only blacksmith I know to see this as a worthy professional challenge (I understand him) so I gave up.
Looking forward to what you come up with. Two diatonics in close proximity can open up a lot of possibilities.
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