Orrps,
the first attempt to comment the subject was an angry mistake of mine.
So, once again.
Blackie once said that every harp right out the box has to be worked more or
less. Yes,
because harps are mass products and all measures to achieve a flawless
finish are cost
factors for the factories.
Lets only take the visible parts of a normal Hohner 270. Though the ends of
the curved
cover plates are bent towards the inside, the corners at the bottom are
sharp, as well as the
fixing bolts and nuts of the cover ends. Even the wooden comb has unworked
rims and edges.
Round mpc holes are somewhat more comfortable than cornered ones (gunk), bot
both
designs have sharp rims.
However, all these weakpoints of the outer finish can be worked by everybody
unlike
harp problem Nr.1, the airtightness. The more parts a chromatic has the more
reasons for
leackage occur which specially concerns the mpcs of 270 and older 280
chroms, consisting
of 4 parts.
Well, a certain portion of clearance is necessary at movable parts, of
course, but besides
the movable reeds of all harps, the slide of a chromatic has more clearance
than necessary.
Vern mentioned an interesting point in answering Timler`s analogy of weatherstripping the windows but open-standing doors at unvalved chroms:
< In a valved harp, a stock slide acts as an open-standing window.......this
is because the worst
< source of leakage in a valved chromatic is from hole-to-hole through the
slide >
Absolutely!! I often wondered when observing what happens when the slide is
moved.
Closing a hole opens the hole for the opposite chamber in a corresponding
way, so,
when the slide is pushed halfway in both holes are half-open. This means
that a chromatic
never can play a clean single note like any other music instrument. To play
two neighbouring
piano tastes is an intentional effect but two chromatic notes when shifting
the slide are an
unavoidable technical necessity.
Vern:
<Hole-to-hole leakage through the slide is the seldom-mentioned but egregious thief of breath <and resonance! >
I mentioned that often enough when criticising the crossed reed layout
giving allegedly a bigger
airstream. At the highest crossed octave one can even hear the air holes.
So, the straight
position with the smaller slide holes is the lesser bad alternative.
< In cutting down the flanges of the U-channel to reduce clearance you don't
<expose much brass ....>
I tried that too but found it better to glue thin plastic layers on the
lower plate and the
U-channel because they reduce the slide noise and are almost insensitive
against the glueing saliva
<When Tate was among us, I was awed by his musicianship but argued that he
<placed unwarranted importance on silver plating >
Well, Vern, I think the dicussion on silver plating did concern lesser the
slide but more
the mpc. If I remember right, it was discussed on harp-L which material
gives the best
gliding effect If so, I`d liked to remind of my "gator-look" I mentioned
years ago.
What`s that? Simply, the result of my observation of a very funny "chromatic
ritual".
Being part of the audience and oberserving chromatic players on stage, it
can`t be overlooked
that they are constantly licking their mpcs. They do that almost in an
unintentional reflex same
as billiard players are constantly working their cue tips with chalk though
it`s chalk enough on
the tip.
During the respective list discussion many preferred a silver- plated mpc
having the best
gliding surface.I found just the contrary.
Instead of a very smooth and even surface I roughened the brass mpcs of my
CB chroms by
countless little dimples. The idea behind?
Same as the corners of a room to be renewed by paint are the last spots
which dry up, these
mpc dimples are the last ones where the licked saliva will evaporate.
All for now.
Siegfried
_______________________________________________ Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l