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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
What would happen, if...
What would happen, if...
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Eyeball_Kid
5 posts
Nov 13, 2013
3:54 AM
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Just some thoughts: if you'd take the reed plates from a high and a low harp in the same key and put both blow-reed-plates on one harmonica, so that you have the same notes with the distance of 1 octave in every hole, could you play a full chromatic scale on every hole of the harmonica, if you have the lungs of a whale?
The thing is, you can always bend a note down to about a half step over the lower pitched reed so from f to f' (or F to f, I'm not sure) you would be able to play every note of one octave just using draw bends.
Unfortunately i don't have 2 harmonicas in the same key, high and low but if i did, i would instantly go and try that.
I know it's stupid and useless but interesting to know
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nacoran
7330 posts
Nov 13, 2013
6:06 PM
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I always love mad scientist posts. They show people are trying to figure out the why, not just the how of working things.
You could probably achieve similar results with something less than an octave splitting them. There might be some issues getting the blow reed plates both on one harp too (I assume you mean reversing one reed plate so you still have draws). Now, if you took a harp with a draw plate roughly an octave higher you might have better luck assembling it.
There are several neat ways people have tried to get around the limits on diatonic harps (aside from buying a chromatic).
Winslow Yerxa has what's called a discrete comb that isolates both reed plates, which lets you bend notes farther.
Suzuki has the Overdrive and Hohner has the XB-40. Brendan Power has the X-Reed. I don't think anyone is making the Bahnson (another diatonic harp with a slide) but Turboharp has the Turboslide which uses magnets and a button to change the pitch. (It's the only one I've played myself. Right now it only changes the blow notes (but that lets you change the bends) but I think the site said they are working on the next version. In addition to adding some notes, it makes it really easy to bend whole chords. There are some tunings out there that make it easier to get all the notes without overblows too (and of course, there are overblows).
Either Tombo or Suzuki has a harp that has it's holes laid out like a piano, but I'm not sure if that harp bends (and it's expensive!) In Asia, I think a lot of people get around the issue by using two harps 1/2 step apart. With practice you can switch quickly. There are even devices to hold the harps together. (It doesn't work great, because of the thickness of the comb, but in a pinch you can even take the bottom cover off of one harp, the top cover off another, and put a comb in between them backwards. I experimented with this, and the main problem (aside from the fact that I was too lazy that particular day to go out and buy long screws!) was that the monster was a little big to get deep in your mouth where you get the good tone. Theoretically, it would also give you some weird options to turn the harmonica around and play it backwards, if anyone came up with a clever tuning for it... (Here's a picture, so no one thinks I'm making it up!)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5193776/Posted%20to%20the%20internet%20do%20not%20move/harpstack.jpg
I don't show the back, but it does create one harp on the back too, although I have no idea whether it's a useful one with the notes it has, or if some alternate tuning would create a useful harp. I thought about taking a bunch of cheap harps and stacking them together just for a conversation piece to play at open mics. I suspect, separating them by one step each on the circle of fifths would be the most reverse playable. :)
There are also pinwheels that hold several harps at once (usually 6), for quick switching.
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Nate
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Frank
3267 posts
Nov 13, 2013
6:37 PM
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I perdict that The Magic Dick will someday unveil the ONE we have all been waiting to get our lips on :)
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BluesJacketman
47 posts
Nov 13, 2013
6:58 PM
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its all about this mic:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181255564560?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
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y'all don't got nothing on me!
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nacoran
7333 posts
Nov 13, 2013
9:34 PM
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Bluesjacketman, ???
I'm lost.
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Nate
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Aussiesucker
1345 posts
Nov 13, 2013
9:35 PM
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You could of course try it on an octave harp like the Seydel Concerto which is a 10 hole diatonic with 2 draw & 2 blow reeds for each hole & each reed set tuned an octave apart. Not sure about the chromatic possibilities. This is a video I did on receiving my octave harp. I think it has an olde worlde sound & more at home if used for folk or campfire type tunes.
http://youtu.be/Z7fGx2QGnsA
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HARPOLDIE’S YOUTUBE
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