Diamanté Wind Vox
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Beautiful instrument Oscar. I really look forward to seeing the”guts ” , so to speak, especially the bending mechanism. I know you have previously said ” the more keys, the better.” Why did you settle on 34? Also, where did you source your reeds, if you don’t mind sharing?
Lots of questions, too little time.
Regards,
ShannonHere is a video of me performing live with the “Diamante Wind Vox” I completed in the summer. In this video we use an acoustic Hawaiian Acoustic Slide Guitar played by long time friend, producer, engineer, writer and incredeble musician Cisco Deluna. Playing percussion is the awesome “Quinn” with credits including Daft Punk, Kanye West, Tracy Chapman and many many more great artist. I am Very fortunate to have friends like this to play with. My set up is the Diamante with a Custom Made (3) mic set up by Gregg Myers at Myers Pickup. Then to my Pedal board for a little reverb and echo to my Fender Deluxe Reverb re-issue. Cisco’s Hawaiian Guitar is using a standard Feather light pick up from Myers Pickups to his pedal board to his Vox AC25 Amp. All the sound including precision is then being pick up by a Neumann TLM-103 that is fed to the board then out to the Go Pro. This tune is a light blues called Whisky Joe.
Melodica-MeReally nice! Wonderful to have such a talented group of friends to jam with! I really like the note bending; very soulful. This capability should be available for all melodicas. Hopefully you will be able to share with us soon the mechanism for this. Is it magnetic?
Shannon M
Hi Oscar,
This sounds great. Nice playing by your band and you. I like the haunting and somewhat dark sound from the Diamante, particularly given you accomplish this in the upper registers. Nice joystick for bending. The Diamante looks awesome.
Regards,
Lowboy
Hi Melodica-Me,
fantastic playing! The Diamanté comes really close to the melodica of my dreams (maybe just apart from the range and from a possibility to muffle the sound and play WahWah’s – but’s that’s just my personal taste and should in no way belittle your great instrument). If ever you start manufacturing the Diamanté – tell us and you’ll have many many customers!
Greetings, Quetscher
Thank you Lowboy, and thanks for the info emailed earlier. Lots to think about with pedals. I am using a Echoplex pedal now with the Diamanté and I like the results.
Melodica-MeHello Quetschen, thank you. I originally included a baffle for the Diamanté to create a wah wah effect, but wound up eliminating it when the note bending system was completed. The reason I eliminated the baffle was that the location of the bending bar with my hand over the Diamanté made it very uncomfortable to hold and operate the bending bar. I use my thumb to support the Diamanté from the back so the baffle extended my hand to far away from the body as the Baffle needs to be in the open position all the time and only closed when the wah effect is needed. I think with time I can work this issue out, as an acoustical Wah Wah effect would be very cool. I currently use an Auto-Wah pedal, but it has its limits. I am thinking of going to a classic Vox Wah Wah pedal for this Diamanté and dedicate some more time for R&D for the baffle on the next one I build.
Melodica-MeGreat to finally hear your instrument MM! The bending seems to work really well. My old accordina has a built in wah wah, where the 2 side panels are on springs and can be pushed in to the body to dull the sound. Would be great to hear the raw untreated sound. Did you find expensive Italian reeds to have an advantage to cheap mass produced ones?
Thanks Daren, I was able to find (2) sets of old new stock Clavietta reeds from a Frenchman who had spares, still in the original wax paper. So one set is in the Diamanté and another (spare set) in my tool set for the Diamanté. The baffle panel I had designed worked well. I used two torsion springs at the end caps with a rod hinge. The panel ran the length of the Diamanté. The bending bar was originally designed to be at the underside of the keyboard but when I first test it, it made the Diamanté unblanced when playing. My thumb keeps the Diamanté stable so it was moved to the top of the keyboard and now my fingers can move the bar and still support the Diamanté when playing with my thumb. Also with the baffle panel in the open position it pushed my hand away from the Diamanté so the bending bar was not easy to reach. I did not think of that aspect when I was designing it.
Melodica-MeOh, for some reason, I thought you’d used Binci reeds, maybe you were talking about them at one point. Did you follow the Clavietta system in general for the Diamanté, e.g. reeds mounted on the outside?
I spoke with Mr. Binci several times regarding the reeds I needed. I requested the same size reeds as the clavietta from him as I had already started using the Clavietta reeds as a basis for my main plate size. the difference was that I wanted some in versions with brass, stainless and bronze reeds on a stainless reed plate. (2) sets of each to start with. The Diamanté is designed to have interchangeable reeds that screw in place without the use of wax to seal any gaps. I would still like to get some brass and bronze reeds made in that configuration. I am currently looking for new materials for another build and want to set my self up for some projects when I retire, hopefully in a few years :). To answer your question, yes the reeds are on the outside and it is a plunge valve system like the Clavietta or like an accordina. The Diamanté has a dual spring system, one at the back of the key and one in the valve post, where the Clavietta and accordinas have a single spring either at the rear or at the valve for tension. I am very curious on the progress of your new project, any updates? inquiring minds want to know 🙂
Melodica-Me
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