Slide Tremolo Harmonica ?? Anybody??

[captainsteve]

      Some of you folks are possibly familiar with a tremolo slide harp??

      I was watching a youtube hosted by Don Black a successsful harmonica player
     from Scottish Isles with a band offering up Gaelic and other traditional "Highland" tunes.

      His passion is tremolo harps in particular the three octave double sided hohner model.

      During the youtube discussion show and tell he presented a tremolo slide harp
      that provides the sharps and flats, apparently got it from someone in the USA.

      Ive seen videos of folks playing two trem harps switching between keys but since this
     webportal is all about the slide I thought Id mention the tremolo slide harp located in
     Scotland.

     Could this be the elusive haggis came back as a harmonica?

     

[John Broecker]

Hello, Captain Steve.

Slide tremolo chromatic harmonicas have
a history, but only one company (Suzuki)
produces them today.

www.suzukiharmonicas.com
(closed for new website development)

www.suzuki-music.co.jp/

Suzuki's Headquarters is in Hamamatsu,
Japan, founded in 1953 by school music
 teacher Manji "Man-chan" Suzuki (1929-?).

Man-chan started making harmonicas in a
rented farmhouse room in Sumiyoshi Town,
Japan, later moving to Hamamatsu in 1953.

The Suzuki SCT-128, today's slide chromatic
tremolo is, in my opinion, far superior to the
slide tremolos made in the past.

A FREE, SCT-128 maintenance instructions
sheet is downloadable. Go to the 2nd website
address listed above, and select chromatic
harmonicas, then SCT-128 (SPT-128).

The SCT-128 is a 4-octave, 128 reeds slide
tremolo chromatic. It is a solo system harp,
like the standard 4-octave single reed slide
chromatics of today.

The first known, mass-produced tremolo slide
chromatic was made and USA patented in 1941,
(#2256682) by the Torahachi Machino harmonica
company of Tokyo, Japan. The patent is for a
knob-turned tremolo chromatic harmonica.

The Machino's toothpaste-cap-shaped turning knob
is located on the right side of the bakelite-combed
harmonica. Turning the knob moves a tube from
a key of C set of reeds to a C# key set of reeds
on another reed plate. It has 22 reed chambers,
each chamber with 2 tremolo reeds.

Best Regards, Stay Healthy

JB

[BeauKim]

My guess is that it was made by John Infande, who called it his musette model.  George Miklas and I own one.

[John Broecker]

Hello, Beau Kim.

The Infande "Musette" slide chromatic
tremolo was shown at a SPAH convention
in the late 1990s.

It was two tremolo harps, keys of C and C#,
with one mouthpiece.

John Infande didn't make many of these.
He said that they were too expensive to
produce in mass quantities.

Best Regards, Stay Healthy

John Broecker

[Grizzly]

From Pat Missin:

"Of course, there was a tremolo chromatic already available as a custom order instrument, John Infande's Musette. John took two regular chromatics, placed one above the other and made a special mouthpiece [with slider] that allows the player to sound both instruments at once."

He had to have retuned one chromatic's reeds to create the tremolo effect. I saw one years ago. It was clumsy to hold.

Tom

[Joseph]

My guess is that it was made by John Infande, who called it his musette model.  George Miklas and I own one.

Having seen what I suspect to be the same video, this is what it looked like to me.  The fellow said it had poor response, so he doesn't really use it.

[Leatherman]

Now there is a name from years ago......John Infande!  I bought a couple of used chromes from him when he lived up here in NY. He also worked on one of my harmonicas. At that time he had come up with a design for cutting up the reed plates on a 48 chord so they could be worked on easier.
Re the tremolo chromatic didn’t someone make one for Jerry Murad. He used it for Parisienne Fantasy where it sounded like a French accordion.

[captainsteve]

             Wow thats amazing folks, like Harmonicapaedia on steroids.

              I like tremolos and that cafe accordion sound is beautiful.

               I recently boiled an echo after taking it apart, and it went back to gether
        perfectly, it sounds sweet!  The cover plates are so worn out you cant read
        anything on it anymore.  Anyway I find theres a magic to that echo tremolo sound.
        Thats my favourite to play when strolling in the woods. Waltzing matilda type of thing.

            The Asian tremolo tuning is different though, a bit tamer.
           Suzuki slide trem, sounds interesting.
              Thats probably an expensive item.

         Thanks y'all !