I’ve customized a few of my harps with aluminum combs, which have round holes. I love them, I think they force you into tongue blocking better, I’ve also got a JDR Ninja harp with these but with a plastic combs. I just wandered what everyone else’s experience has been with round holes. I find if I switch from a ninja to say a SP20 or a rocket amp my tongue blocking becomes a lot better more accurate ( especially on the lower holes I’ve only been blocking and bending on those for a few months, it took me what seemed like an eternity to get those) my vamping has really improved my wife says she loves the sound of my customized harps I’m getting other things down that I’ve never been that happy with my warbles is one example. My trills are also better I can’t move my head like most people do as I have a neck injury which I’ll probably always have, so I use my hands for trills and they definitely sound better with the round holes.
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My experience has been that every harp design teaches you something. And if you are thoughtful about it, you can transfer that back to other harps.
I’ve tried a few round hole combs for diatonic, and on chromatic I use both.
I can say that larger holes give a slightly different tone. And that hole size and spacing has an impact on navigation of the harp…but you quickly adapt. One exception is for extremely technical passages that you rehearsed a few thousand times. That takes longer to adapt.
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Great stuff fellas! Your threads answer all of my questions!