What's this "pure drop" stuff all about?

Though some of these players are superb exponents of the art they are most certainly not the first.

Trad harp has been around for as long as the harmonica.

There have been many debates and modifications to the design esp of the Chromatic and Modal button models.

It has been my experience with Hohner that they have their ideas about how it should be done and to hell with common sense. Mr Power for example has his system, Clarke his etc

Common sense and practice( Accordion/Concertina method ) shows that the correct method is placing a D plate into the C# instrument ( which OC nobody makes) and playing it from the inside out.

In effect you play with the button in and go out for the off notes taken OC from a C# scale; the reason for this set up is timing not convenience.

Other options are to take a D harmonica rip out both plates, put the D on the inside and rip up a C# to get the outside. Again Hohner simply refuse to do this.

I once had 9 270’s bought a blown out over the years which are lying about someplace ( I used love playing trad on the Harmonica )

Today a young player might be able to convince these Japanese wannabe makers to create the Irtrad Harp as outlined above. I often tought that what I did in bars years ago was copied a little but what audiences did not get is that I was actually playing IN Eb on the D 270.

Today I use only a cheapo sale ( 7 bucks …I am afraid I have the Harmonica equivalent of WHOA) Hohner blues Diatonic with the wrong notes in the lower octave ( if you ever played one you’ll know what I’m on about otherwise ignore the comment ). It sounds very nice with TW - but OC you probably did know that. Back in Ireland esp on the ‘Randay’ you’d hear little bands of TW Harmonica and Tamborine - rare these days I think that it is a dying art.

The Murpheys have that about their playing but the likes of Michael Conroy (WW2 vet) has never been equaled. The man could outplay the Uilleann pipers of the day! on a little Koch Hohner harmonica, absolutely incredible to hear it live

It is not an alternative to the Concertina - except for a masochist - because it is infinitely easier to take reels out with a belllows instead of yer lungs.

The only advantage I used find is that people are so surprised by the sound of it they can never get enough nor forget the event where they hear it. You’ll often hear them say ’ your’e the the guy with that plays the Irish harmonica’.

That said the original question is probably asking about Poteen.. lol

The standard layout of stock harmonicas is not ideal, to say the least, for Irish music, but there are some remedies. As Toasty alluded to, you can pull chromatics apart and rebuild to whatever spec you want by swapping bits around (costly). Or you can get a custom builder such as Brendan Power to build you a harp to your exact requirements. It’ll cost you a packet again, but then most first-rate instruments will…In the case of blues harps and their 10-hole ilk, you are right to complain about that low octave tuning – it is wrong for Irish. But it is relatively easy, with cheap tools, to retune one of the reeds to give you a far more suitable instrument. There is now a new 10-hole harp called the XB40 which is set up so that you can obtain all the notes of the chromatic scale by bending. Costs over £50 in the UK.
Realistically, Hohner and the other makers are not going to produce small volumes of what people expect to be inexpensive instruments specially-tuned just for the relatively tiny market of players of ITM. Hence the boom in custom builders.
You’re right about reels too – just about the hardest tunes to pull off on a harmonica, but what is life without a challenge….!
Talk about getting off-topic….I thought someone would get round to poteen somehow, though I’m more of a Bushmills man myself (OK, I admit it, anything I can get my hands on…)

Cheers

Steve

Umm well I was a bit short about that - so I better explain a few complications which prevent Hohner techs from tackling the apparently simple task.

The D reed plates will fit only one way on a comb, and really make a person mad if they are not ready for the frustration; so, if you take it off of the top and put on the bottom then you have reversed the draw/push setup. D is now a draw not a push. So that aint goina work. OTOH if you wanted to make a cheapo Power model from 2 old D 270s then I cant see any reason why not

Seriously though if you like the old melodain push/draw style then playing in Eb is fine. Lots of TW people use this key and fiddlers can retune.