[Henry Lowengard]

I can definitely tell that its more powerful and precise with a hard, direct tube for me! I just need practice to have the thing so close to my face. I think there are longer, hard tubes out that that I should look into. or: 3d print them

[Henry Lowengard]

Well that’s exciting!
Do you find the rubber tubing “giving” more than the stiffer corrugated plastic tubing? That is, mooshing up attacks a little?

[Henry Lowengard]

I think the secrets to fast attack are:
– tight gaskets
– a short, stiff mouthpiece.
I’m surprised at how leaky my gaskets are! Just blow into it with no keys down: ideally, you shouldn’t be able to!
And I love the hose, but its flexibility take some of the attack power out of it.

Practice is probably the best diaphragm strengthening exercise, but I bet there are others.

Physics demands that there be more energy to run those low notes, and there’s not much you can do about them. I don’t think you can do anything to the reeds outside of filing them down, sharpening and flattening, to make them thinner and yet stay in tune. That’s precarious.

[Henry Lowengard]

You can point to this melodica playlist I made!

[Henry Lowengard]

The tape I used is silicone pipe repair tape, about 1mm, sorry I don’t know the brand. You stretch it a little and it activates! I trimmed it down, and it stuck on pretty well by itself. It makes a huge difference in playability!
I wonder if my Suzuki Melodion bass-24 could stand some tightening? Its always needed lots of air!

[Henry Lowengard]

Hey! I tried plumber’s tape (the stretchy, self sticking type), and it worked great!
But more advice would be nice!

[Henry Lowengard]

I don’t see why it should be any different – any tuning differences would be due to air pressure which is pretty variable in both cases! I can test it though, I was was going to do a “tuning inventory” on it anyway just to see what shape it’s in.

I write music software (that people don’t buy a whole lot of), and I might be able to throw together an online tuning web app that can:
– record an analyze a series of sounds (you shouldn’t have to break them up, just make sure they are monophonic and clear)
– check the frequencies for each “note”. They change over time, so you’ll get to pick which ones you want to pretend are the actual tuning.
– compare it with the idealized version of that note for the tuning system you want (it might be 1/4 comma mean tone based on 442 Hz or something like that)
– show which reeds need the most attention.
– lets you save it for comparison later
– optionally output a tuning file so if you like your out-of-tune melodica, you can convince a synthesizer to match its pitches. This would be using MIDI 2.0 or similar tricks.

[Henry Lowengard]

Antonio: that self sticking silicone plumber’s tape is the secret ingredient! There are a few brands, this might be “Rescue Tape”. And using that plastic test tube was great: it’s just the right size and can be shimmed with that tape to attach the blowing tube.

[Henry Lowengard]

I bet a real P-37D would have better mechanics and gaskets. There was one for $100 on Ebay that I was tempted to get! But I restrained myself.

I used to play melodica with a pickup bluegrass band every week (?!) but that of course isn’t happening and the restaurant where that was has permanently closed.

[Henry Lowengard]

They seem to fit in well with the existing reeds. The brass quality is good and shiny right now! I haven’t checked them for tuning, but I’m going to be more forgiving unless they’re off by more than 8 cents or so. The tuning was a constant problem before.

It takes more air pressure than my Pianica, but that’s always been the case. Someone was asking about gaskets here and I bet fresh gaskets would help a little.

[Henry Lowengard]

Can you tell which reed plate was replaced?
Those little screws were hard to unscrew – I had to Dremel new slots in some of them. The plate itself was a fraction of a millimeter too big also – but as a melodica tuner, I’m handy with a file.

Sounds good! I’ve got my E back at least! Good thing they had the middle plate, the upper and lower ones were sold out. I also picked up a new hose because: new hose!

[Henry Lowengard]

Thanks for the advice, Melodica/Mylodica experts! I wonder if a real P37D would fit in there? I’d probably be pretty happy with just a real P37D!

This blower tool is made out of one of those plastic watering tubes used by florists. I filed open a hole in it and used some excellent self-sticking vinyl-ish plumbing tape to make it possible to get a good enough air seal. It peels off with abuse, but it’s easy to reapply. In this hastily shot picture, the hose connector is pointing the wrong way…obviously, it needs clearance to actually work. I scrape a little, then push this over the reed and blow (staring at the electronic tuner).

[Henry Lowengard]

Thanks for the info! I suppose a p32D high plate would help!
Another subject: tuning.
Often these reeds are tuned to A-442Hz or are just off, period. I made a special testing tube that I can use to help play the reed while I go at it with a file. It’s OK , but it’s still a tedious process! Has anyone had success with the “drop of nail polish on the reed” trick? I’d like to avoid scraping the reed as much a possible, and flattening the pitch with nail polish (which itself can be delicately rasped) seems like a good idea!

[Henry Lowengard]

The world is kind of on pause right now, but there’s a kickstarter that succeeded is for the re.corder, a recorder that is also a MIDI Controller Over Bluetooth LE, and I suspect it can pick up breath control. That’s the main thing for simulated melodicas, you’ll want a speedy breath control to merge with whatever note events you can put out on some other device.

Here’s an Arduino hackable one: https://hackaday.io/project/161678-usb-midi-breath-controller.You’d probably want to add a MIDI IN to help it merge into the system, and make it something you plug right into the cable between a controller and a synth module.

[Henry Lowengard]

That’s a real beauty! Putting a lot of thought into maintenance is a ground breaking idea! I’ll have to look for Monsters of Melodica when it appears!

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