I've got a Marine Band by M. Hohner no. 1896. I've had it for about 6 months and haven't played it really all that much, but recently I've noticed that when I play chords with holes 6-9, there is a strange humming or warbling noise that plays in the background. When I play each hole individually it sounds fine, but together I get the noise.
Is there something wrong with my harmonica? Can it be fixed, or do I need to buy a new one?
Do you have a way to record it and post it? I'm not sure what you are describing unless you are talking about the beating of the chords. (Chords do that, depending on how they are tuned- you can have a harp that doesn't beat on chords, but it will sound out of key on single notes, and a harp that is tuned to make the single notes sound in key will beat more, is a play between the two extremes. It involves wave interference patterns.)
Not really, my laptop microphone isn't very good and I don't seem to be able to pick up the sound on it.
I don't really understand what you mean by beating on chords.
Oh, I forgot to mention that it was only on the blow. What it's like is if I play hole 7 and 8 separately they sound fine, but if I play them together I get the sound of both 7 and 8 and also this extra, off key tone.
Without hearing it it's hard to say. I know the sound of reeds hitting the covers (which wouldn't happen on high holes anyway) and the sound of stuck reeds, and the sound of a dead reed. A stuck reed doesn't make much sound and a dead or dying reed, I would think, would make the noise (and actually be easier to hear) when you were playing single notes.
Since you included 'warbling' in your description I thought you might be experiencing the Temperament of the harp, although you'd hear that a little bit on any chord you played.
Different models of harmonicas are tuned differently. They have the same notes, but they will be a couple cents higher or lower on certain holes to either make the chords sound better or the single note melodies. The Marine Band, I think, is compromise tuned more towards the Just end of the scale (smoother chords) but it can still generate a little dissonance. I just picked my E harp up, and I can hear a bit on the 6-9 blow.
That's my best guess, but maybe one of the customizers can chime in though with some other ideas. If it is just the tuning it's not a big deal, especially if it's not loud enough for your mic to pic up. Most of the time when you are playing the top end of the harmonica you are doing single notes anyway. It's a trick of how sound waves interact. The troughs and crests of different notes line up and create harmonics.
Some harmonicas (tremolos) actually use two reeds per hole, tuned just a little apart. When their sound waves interfere it creates a really strong pulsing sound. Regular diatonics are set up to minimize the interference, but it's just part of the nature of sound.
Hmm, well thanks anyway. It might be what you said. I'm pretty new to this whole harmonica thing so I wasn't sure if it was something to be worried about.
It's a long shot but, maybe you have a bee in you MB and when you play single notes he just moves from reed to reed but when you play chords, he's got nowhere to go, becomes annoyed and starts buzzing.
You're hearing the "difference tones" between 2 notes. I know that, on the low end of the harp, this is where the "bass" we love when we play amplified comes from. I also know that there, when the two notes are perfectly in tune the 3rd note will be in tune with them but when the two primary notes are not in tune, the 3rd note will go out of tune as well and you get lots of "beat note" overtones.
The good news? You have good ears! ---------- *************************************************** /Greg
My assumption without hearing would you are hearing what is referred to as "Beat". When two notes that are the same 1,4 split are not tuned together the Low may be a little flat and the high may be a little sharp. It shouldn't do this as Compromised and equal tuning shouldn't have this sound. Basically your split octaves should be in tune. It is relatively easy to fix as long as you have a tuner and a file. Here is the best example of how to do it. This is just a guess to what your problem may be. Either way this video is great and I hope it helps.
---------- "The only way to get better is to play a little outside your comfort zone every time you play!"
