RE: Removing valves

["Laurent Vigouroux" <laurent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

>From what I understand, you can't remove all the valves on a chrom because
it would become too leaky. But in some cases you can "half-valve" it. Here
is a description of half-valving on Brendan Power's site:

"Half-valving means that valves are added which affect the lower pitched
reeds in each hole. This is half the notes on the harp, hence the term. On a
normal un-valved harp, in a hole where the blow note is lower than the draw,
you can bend the draw note by interaction of the reeds - but not the blow.
Also the blow note sounds a bit quieter, more breathy and less defined than
the draw, especially in the bottom octave. The same principle applies where
the draw note is lower pitched than the blow (as in holes 7-10 of a Richter
tuned harp)."

This is typically what's done on Brendan's CX-10 Richter tuned. And man,
this harp is very air tight!!!!

I don't know how this would apply to a regular chrom (solo tuned). Can
anybody out there give more details on that subject?

Thanks

   Laurent

> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : owner-harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx]De la part
> de 'Honking' Dave Shannon
> Envoyé : lundi 24 février 2003 12:11
> À : harp-l-digest
> Objet : Removing valves
>
>
>
> I read in the recently published Little Walter
> biography that Walter would remove the
> wind-savers/valves from certain holes (possibly all)
> on his chromatic harmonica.
>
> Well, I don't know if it's true or not, but does
> anyone else do this? If ya do, what do you gain or
> lose by doing it?
>
> I'm guessing this is to help bending when playing
> blues in 3 position (D on C chrom), as Walter may not
> have liked using the slide.
>
> Thanks
>
> Dave
>
> PS Apologies if this has already been raised on harp-l
>
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