Photo—-Tubing and Fixture for Hohner Melodica
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Hi Everyone,
I just found great tubing!
I underwent a sleep study last night, and when the technician pulled out the mask I had to wear, I could not believe my eyes. There was this beautifully-made, light, highly flexible, relatively smooth, medical-grade tubing in a large diameter.
It even had fittings that might be usable. No whistling like you get with corrugated tubing according to the sleep study technician. I get whistling a lot when I blow open-ended through the Hohner black corrugated tubing.
Now I know where to go to get the highest quality tubing for melodicas: medical respiratory equipment suppliers.
Lowboy
Hi,
As I snooped around, it appears that getting the tubing I mentioned in my previous post, and similar high quality medical-grade tubing, should be relatively easy and not too expensive.
Lowboy
And on my mask tubing, which I brought home, the tubing rotates freely inside the fittings on both sides! Wonderful. The fitting on the mask-side swivels! Incredible. Some adaptation might be needed, but if these tubing/fitting combinations are out there in various sizes and configurations, it would raise the bar for melodica tubing.
Lowboy
So the tubing I bought from 1800CPAP does not appear to be so good. It is not as flexible as the tubing on my CPAP mask. I have have not tried it yet, and it may work fine, it is light and flexible, but I was disappointed that is was not as flexible as the tubing on my CPAP mask.
Lowboy
Nice tubing Alan. Does it fit on the other end of the mouthpiece? I happen to like the Hohner standard mouthpiece, but I an trying to figure out how to connect the back of the mouthpiece to my copper elbow using about 14 inches of flexible tubing. Lowboy
It does not fit the other end of the regular HM-26/27/32 mouthpiece. Possibly it could be stretched to do so. However, the Proline 3/4 OD, 5/8 ID does. I bought a ten foot roll of each of these diameters, about $7 each if I remember correctly, at either Home Depot or Lowes. I wish it were more flexible.
Also, the fit on the mouth end is air tight and feels snug, but I think it needs a clamp since that end is not round. It works its way off when I try to use the Bootay Method with a 5″ long piece, and it kinks if much longer than that and forced to bend. I don’t think this kind of vinyl tubing will be flexible enough for your 14″ extension. The more flexible it is (still not very), the more easily it will kink.
Here, by the way is a different brand (from Ace Hardware) of 3/8″ ID tubing (similar but even less flexible), which fits nicely on the mouth end of a standard Suzuki mouthpiece.
It seems that this kind of vinyl tubing works better for making a connection or as a short mouthpiece extension (as I am using on my original metal Hohner Pianos 26/27). It’s nice to blow into.
Ah, but here’s some good news. This is really exciting! The Amico 5/8″ OD 2M Black Soft Corrugated Tube Cable Pipe Bellows Hose I showed earlier fits very snugly into the 5/8″ ID Proline. (I think, by the way, that the Proline is not as good quality as the same dimensions tubing sold by the foot at Lowes/Home Depot or Ace.) The further the Amico is slid (slided?) up into the vinyl tubing, the more secure the connection.
Thought I’d drop you a line while you were active. That’S AMAZING that you can fit one tube inside the other. Evidently one company is expressing inside diameter and the second is giving the outside. Hope you are doing well with your project, Paul
I was indicating inside diameter by ID and outside by OD, Paul. Should have made that clearer. My Juliett Pianola project is on hold until I get in the mood to decide what to do next.
Here is a transition from 5/8″ OD/ 1/2″ ID vinyl tubing to 3/4″ OD/ 5/8″ ID vinyl tubing to Amico 5/8″ OD 2M Black Soft Corrugated Tube Cable Pipe Bellows Hose.
Both 5/8″ OD pieces slide with some resistance, well into the 5/8″ ID vinyl tube. These connections are air tight and relatively secure, with an orthodontic rubber band on the 5/8″ vinyl piece that comes out of the melodica. The rubber band rolls into the larger tube. One might be advisable where it slides into the melodica.
The total length from the melodica opening to the end is 14.5″. Lowboy recommends 12-14″ for his technique (“the Bootay Technique” I call it). I am 5’9″ in height, and it will have to be shorter than that to position the melodica over my torso. As I have modified my Hohner HM-26, only the top third of it will have to make contact, with the melodica held in a vertical position, cradled at the bottom in my left hand, to get a wah-wah effect.
Hi Alan,
The trick to getting the melodica up under your chin and to get the whole melodica to lay against your chest is to heat set the tubing so that it is curved like this. Lowboy
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