Post 25: Temporarily Sidetracked by a new Harmonica!

    I am still working on the bass, but I received a new harmonica from Germany a few days ago that got me into something. Basically, I found out a week or so ago that Seydel, the only old-time harmonica manufacturer left in Germany, and the only maker of steel reed harmonicas had come up with an instrument that could be re-tuned at will from Major to Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor, or even some odd tunings, using magnets:

     Since I prefer the Minor tunings, it seemed like a really interesting design that would allow me to experiment. It wasn't cheap, German-made harmonicas are more expensive than Chinese made harmonicas with a German name like Hohner, but I got excited and ordered it. It came all the way from Germany in two days. Honestly, I was a little disappointed at first, I suppose because I am not used to steel reeds. The sound is colder to my ear than the warm sound of brass reed, and there seem to be fewer harmonics. It's harder to play and take some getting used to. Also, I was not overly impressed with the tuning system. It does work, but the magnets affect the sound quality and are hard to adjust precisely, especially on the draw reeds. The whole thing seemed a little flimsy. I considered sending it back, but there was in the user sheet an interesting footnote saying:

     "The inspiration for designing the ALL MINOR HARMONICA came from Jim Antaki's Turboslide harmonica (>www.turboharp.com) where little magnets were used to alter the pitch of stainless steel reeds for the first time."

     So of course, I checked out the website mentioned:  TURBOHARP.COM

     And that's how I discovered that a guy named Jim Antaki was actually the "inventor" and had patented the magnet idea. I am not sure what the relationship is with Seydel, maybe they pay him a fee to use his idea, or maybe they made a deal since he uses Seydel Harmonica as a base for the "Turboharps" he sells.

    In any case, there are all kinds of interesting things on his website, including detailed drawings of his tuning mechanism, which is different from Seydel's. He mounts his magnets on the plate next to the reed and slides them over towards the reed. The magnets can be adjusted a bit vertically with an X-wrench :

    Seydel on the other hand has the magnets attached to the cover plates, and slides them diagonally over the reed. I felt like I would like to play with the idea too, and decided to keep that harmonica. Of course, I immediately took it apart to see exactly how it worked, and it is actually pretty simple: a magnetic field close to the reed slows down its vibration, and flattens the pitch about a halftone, allowing minor tunings. The magnet slides closer to the tip of the reed diagonally, and the player just tunes to a flat by ear with the sliders:

      As I said above, it does work, but frankly not all that well, especially on the bottom draw reeds, presumably because they are on the same side of the reed plate. Could I possibly take off with the idea and do better? I do like challenges after all!