Valves or wind savers as they are more often called are strips of material that are placed on the harmonica reed plate and cover the slot. Typical diatonic, chromatic and orchestral harmonicas have a blow and draw reed in each slot. Generally, only one of the reeds sounds when a player blows or draws on one hole. Wind savers prevent air from entering the slot of the non-sounding reed by laying flat against the reed plate creating a seal. Wind savers are most commonly used o

Play the chromatic and you no doubt experience the frustrations of the many before you. When that button sticks during a 16th note run, you ask yourself why in the name of Larry Adler did you ever begin playing the chrom. However, keeping the slide functioning and smooth isn’t as difficult as you might think and the science behind it is pretty basic. Your Seydel chromatic mouthpiece assembly is made up of several precisely machined pieces of metal that are compressed against

Ever pick up an old chrom and hear that annoying “click” sound when you hit the button? Harmonica companies use “bumpers” around the mouthpiece set screws to prevent this. Bumpers are tiny pieces of rubber hose that go around the screws. They serve to dampen the sound of the metal slide hitting the screws. Bumpers are basically very short pieces of fuel hose or something similar. I’ve written previously about the need for regular and frequent slide/mouthpiece assembly clea

Considering a new Seydel chromatic? Email me here Purchase your new Seydel chromatic here If you are new to the chromatic harmonica or are considering the purchase of a Seydel chromatic, this article is for you. The chromatic is a great instrument and the ability to hit every note on the scale means fewer struggles on bent notes, overblows, and other uniquely diatonic harmonica techniques. But before taking off on a chromatic harmonica journey, the player should accept a bas

Care to purchase a Seydel diatonic? Go here Want to take a look at the 1623customharmonicas web site? Go here Have a question ? Contact me here More helpful articles? Go here It can be very frustrating. You pull out your favorite harp and start to play and nothing comes out. Not sure what's going on, you blow or draw harder and still nothing. We call that "choking". It is that point where you feel like you are trying to blow up a balloon and there is no movement of air an

The terms TUNING, TEMPERAMENT, PITCH, and FREQUENCY BASIS are used quite commonly on forums and in marketing data put out by harmonica companies. The standard diatonic harmonica has a series of notes that are commonly referred to as RICHTER TUNING. Although the name is not technically correct, common usage has taken over and it has become synonymous with the tuning layout that comes on almost all stock production harmonicas. When we refer to ALTERNATE TUNING, we are referr

As a Seydel warranty service partner and Seydel technician, I receive daily inquiries from players on issues they are having with their Seydel diatonic and chromatic harmonicas. I also receive numerous requests for custom tunings and harmonica set-ups. This allows me the privilege of interacting with hundreds of players. I find that an increasing number of players are taking up the harmonica and that is great news. However, what is not so great is that many attempting to l