Why the Slipslider is a Game-changer for the Richter Diatonic Harmonica

In the 125 years since 1896, when the iconic Hohner Marine Band set the format for all 10-hole diatonic harmonicas in Richter tuning, nothing substantial has changed. All modern harps have exactly the same construction: a central comb with a blow reedplate on top, draw reedplate on bottom, and two coverplates. But with the proliferation of knowledge, aided by the internet, clever people everywhere are coming up with striking new improvements for long established products. In the case of the classic 10-hole Richter harmonica (often known as the blues harp), the most significant, in my opinion, is an invention from Hungarian engineer/designer Zombor Kovacs.

Roughly 15 years ago, Zombor created a prototype harp where the lower draw reedplate can move from side to side by the distance of one chamber. This creates new pairings between the blow and draw reeds, which has a huge beneficial effect on the expressive power of the harp. Interactive reed bending is a massive part of the sound and appeal of the blues harp – but only 8 of the 20 reeds can be bent in pitch. In one fell swoop, Zombor’s invention doubles that number to 16! In addition, it increases the range of the existing bendable notes by a large amount. That’s a BIG improvement on the 1896 design without losing any of its intrinsic qualities - because in the home (un-shifted) position, the SlipSlider plays exactly the same as a stock Richter harp. With Zombor’s blessing, a few years ago I developed his idea further using magnets, to simplify the construction and make it more user-friendly. I called my iteration the SlipSlider, and made it available as a hand-made custom harmonica. It works well, adding a huge amount of juicy new expression to the standard Blues Harp. Some love it, but others are very disconcerted when one of the reedplates in their trusty ol’ harpoon is suddenly capable of movement. “The notes are all different!” they say. Ah, yes… well, actually, that’s the idea! But what’s really happening in the SlipSlider is not weird at all. In fact, it makes playing a lot EASIER than on a standard Richter harp. That’s because the drawplate movement is simply moving familiar note patterns to other places on the instrument. There is no new tuning to learn; all you need to do is play your familiar licks and patterns in a different area of the harp – it’s that easy!

Brendan Power Patron

Below is a diagram showing what’s going on, comparing the two drawplate moves with the standard Richter ‘home’ position. When the drawplate is shifted left, you can see that the scale diagram of the harmonica in holes 6-9 is IDENTICAL to the standard harmonica scale in holes 3-6. Because the blow/draw reed partnerships are the same, it has the same familiar draw bends, chords etc as in the middle octave. But now they’re playable in the upper octave – for the first time since the Marine Band was created in the 19th century. That’s pretty impressive! When the draw reedplate is shifted to the right, the middle octave area holes 4-7 is IDENTICAL to the normal high octave holes 7-10. This means that all those juicy blow bends you get up high are now suddenly possible in the middle octave – again, for the first time since 1896. ‘Wow’ again! Moving these familiar note patterns to new areas of the harp not only gives soulful new bending expression, but makes the diatonic Richter harp fully chromatic through easy bending technique alone. That’s another huge advance over the basic 1896 formula – ‘Wow’ for the third time! And as a free bonus offer you can see there are other new very wide blow and draw bends available as well - open for some wild new sounds for adventurous types. ‘Wow’ times four! The beauty of the SlipSlider is that it gives the player all this fabulous new capability without in the slightest taking away the good stuff that we’ve all come to know and love about the Richter diatonic harp. It’s one of those rare things: a genuine Win Win. Assuming a low cost mass-produced model becomes available, as more players give it a go they will realise what fabulous stuff the SlipSlider can offer them, and how simple it is to play. Once that happens, over time I believe many will want ALL their harps to have this extra expression inside, ready for use whenever needed. The stock unmoving harmonica will come to seem very stiff and unresponsive by comparison. In short, I think Zombor’s clever invention has game-changing potential to become the new default format for the 10-hole Richter harmonica of the future. Here’s a video showing all the great new sounds lurking inside the SlipSlider, and how easily ANYONE can play them: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=mB75Mrs8g9M