Hohner Morino high bass slider

[Morne]

With the recent discussion on old comment about the highest voice slider on the Morino. In order not to resurrect that old thread, Ill post here.

When you shut off the highest reeds with that lever on the side the top octave of the MIII notes stop working. These reeds are thus used for both the standard bass and the MIII notes. When these reeds are enabled the MIII keyboard has a range of 58 notes (E to Cis). The lower octave always plays as L+M, the others can be L, L+M or just M. Because there is L+M 70 reeds are already needed for the 58 notes in L and M. A 5-reed standard bass requires 60 reeds. There may be more than the 70 reeds. I have not recently counted.

I hope I didnt misunderstand, but I just checked on my Morino VI M and that high note slider only affects the Stradella notes. All 58 MIII notes are always available on all three registers. I know there arent too many free bass Morino players here, so,
Paul, is what you describe the case on your Artiste X S? Or on other models too?
And, Jerry, what happens on your VI N?

(The VI M has 116 bass reeds and from pictures I could find online, the VI N has 120.)

If the models after the M series disabled the MIII notes, then I assume the slider there is actually coupled to a reed block slider. In my case the slider lifts up a part of the bass mechanism so that highest reed pallets are never opened.

When the high reeds are enabled (slider pushed down towards the floor), this is what the mechanism looks like:
<ATTACHMENT filename=Overview.jpg index=3>

When the high notes are disabled (slider pushed up), the lever/hinge thing in the green box is push in (towards the bellows) which causes the frame in the blue box to lift up. This causes the button rods to disengage from the highest octave pallet rods. (Right side is disabled).
<ATTACHMENT filename=Close-up.jpg index=2>

When you play the C on Stradella, you can see the button rod pushing against the pallet rod. When you disengage the high reeds, the button rod no longer touches the pallet rod.
<ATTACHMENT filename=Stradella C.jpg index=1>

When you play the highest C on MIII, you can see that the pallet rod has been activated, independent of that mechanism being lifted.
<ATTACHMENT filename=MIII C.jpg index=0>

 

[JerryPH]

I just caught this thread. I will check tonight for you to confirn, but if I remember correctly, mine works as Paul describes it. More to come later.

 

[debra]

The VI M is a completely different design from the VI N and S. The M was made by Hohner and apart from lots of mechanical differences it also uses inferior reeds on the bass side compared to the treble side. The register mechanisms are different, both left and right. The VI N and S were made by Excelsior and are technically very similar. The N has "winkelbass" which the S does not have (unless maybe there are variations). Most N instruments have Bugari reeds, whereas the S series has Cagnoni reeds. (Bugari stopped making reeds, so Excelsior had no other choice than to turn to a different reed maker.)

 

[Morne]

Was toggling the highest MIII octave on the Excelsior-made models really a practical issue? Since they continued making it like that, and since the earlier Hohner-made models did not have that "problem", I assume that the trade-off between toggling the notes and having a simpler, or more reliable mechanism, was worth it.

 

[debra]

The coupler shown in the images is not present in the later N and S series. It is not unlike the octave couplers found on modern convertor instruments. On modern instruments these cause all kinds of problems, especially when used while accidentally a button was already pressed. I have had to fix such problems already, which requires opening up the instrument, so not something you could feasibly do during a concert.
The only mechanisms present in the N and S series are register (reed block) sliders. When you use the slider that disengages the highest octave it disengages it for stradella and MIII at the same time. The VI of all series should have 116 reed plates: there are 58 notes on MIII and these do double-duty for stradella. There are no reeds that are used only for MIII or only for stradella.
This is unlike a bayan which has separate high reeds for the base notes, not used for the stradella chords. Here is a picture of the inside of a bayan.
http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~debra/photos/divers2016/slides/PA059586.jpg>
At the top you see the large reed block for the base notes (L and M) and attached to these (on each side actually, but you see only one side) are higher pitched reeds. When you use the register to switch between 2 and 4 reed bass two reed-block sliders engage these reeds. These higher-pitched reeds thus only play on the base notes which are also the lowest octave of the melody bass. (To be exact these are the lowest 14 notes, not 12.) The chords are all formed using the other two reed blocks. This construction requires more reeds (the high reeds for the base notes do not double up as higher octave notes for melody bass or for chords) but it makes the bass button mechanism a lot simpler, less prone to faults, and so much lighter it easily compensates for the weight of the extra reeds.

 

[JerryPH]

To confirm, it functions just as Paul mentions.