Description
Some people may have often asked. Is there a chromatic harmonica —
- with direct tone response like a Blues Harmonica?
- that works WITHOUT a slider and WITHOUT valves?
- which bending and over blowing techniques are playable?
The answer is YES, and the name is the Nonslider Chromatic Deluxe Steel. This limited edition harmonica opens up many new possibilities to play chromatically, no matter if you have played chromatic harmonica before or if you played diatonic blues harmonica!
The Nonslider is a very reliable instrument, which is virtually maintenance free. The forty eight tuned, stainless steel reeds ensure a great sound and long playing experience. Furthermore, stuck valves or a jammed slider are things of the past.
How does the Nonslider Chromatic work?
With a newly developed double-row mouthpiece, the semitones are reached simply by tilting the instrument. A slight tilting down or up is sufficient to reach all chromatic notes by playing the corresponding holes on the respective row.
The notes on the lower row of holes are the same layout as the slide pressed in position, on standard chromatic harmonicas. By tilting it down or up, or the player changes his lip position (puckered-mouth technique/lip-pursing) to reach the right notes.
Tilting the harmonica to reach all the semitones -just holes- no slider!
After a little time practicing, playing comes quite intuitively and automatically, even for players who have been using a slider for years.
What is the tone structure of the Nonslider Chromatic?
The Nonslider Chromatic is built in the common solo tuning and is fitted with Seydel’s durable stainless steel reeds. In addition, since the tone slider is no longer needed, the instrument is extremely airtight and allows very dynamic playing.
What new playing options does the Nonslider Chromatic offer?
The Nonslider offers great new playing options, which players have been unable to find from chromatic harmonicas, so far! The valves typically fitted to chromatic harmonicas have been removed completely, which makes playing techniques which were only available with the blues harmonica.
Tone Table: Nonslider chromatic – solo tuning in C/C#, as with a chromatic, but optionally with many additional achievable bending and over blow tones:
Bending tones and over blows work just as well as on the Blues Harmonica: These alternatively playable tones considerably expand the tonal colour of the instrument and thus the possibilities of the player’s musical expression. Many of the tones can be produced in different ways.
Technical data:
Innovative CNC milled double row half moon shaped mouthpiece with 2 x 12 round holes (replaces the slider pack)
- Maintenance free and air tight: low air consumption and very dynamic playing
- Full, loud sound and fast direct tone response
- Stainless steel reeds x 48: with durability and tuning stability even under heavy use
- Solo tuning in C: the 12×2 channels correspond to three full octaves of standard chromatic instruments
- Equal temperament, concert pitch a’ = 443 Hz (pitch drops slightly if played with a certain pressure)
- Very airtight construction (without slider)
- No valves: absolutely insensitive to moisture
- Tolerance-optimized reed plates made of German silver yield excellent flatness
- Corrosion-free stainless steel cover plates
- Robust, high-precision CNC milled comb made of acrylic glass with optimized cells for ideal tone response; semi-transparent orange
- Together with the Seydel Gecko harmonica holder the Nonslider Chromatic can be played hands free.
See the Nonslider video:
