Hohner CX12 Gold Chromatic

Using string to lift valves is a new one on me. Maybe the guy wanted to temporarily alter the isntrument and wanted to be able to convert it back to standard condition at a moment's notice by pulling out the strong. I''m not aware of this being borrowed from the world of accordion or concertina modifications. Players of the bandoneon, the squeezebox used in Argentinian tango, will curl the valves upwards on their reeds to allow for a stronger attack (and make the instrument sound wheezier, which is an advantage to some players.

People sometimes remove outside valves from chromatics to make them sound and bend more like diatonics. Brendan Power is the big champion and user of half-valved chromatics. (Removing inside valves, in addition to being a lot of work, will make a chromatic unplayably leaky).

Valves are there to prevent excessive air leakage, but they have additional effects:

-- Each reed has a more concentrated tone due to the more focused air delivery.
-- Reeds are more sensitive to strong attacks and more likely to choke (You get around this by setting the reed gaps higher and by adjusting your techniue if you're in the habit of slamming hard on every note.)
--All valved notes can be bent down several semitones in pitch, but the ease of sustain and the timbre are not as nice as on diatonics.

Removing outside valves on Holes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 will allow you to bend D down to C# and A down to G# as a diatonic-style dual-reed bend.

Removing the outside valves on Holes 2 and 6 allows you to get that microtonal bend on F that is often very expressive.

Removing outside valves on Hole 4 and 8 isn't useful - the draw note, B, is in a hole with blow C, so it won't realize any bending advantage because the blow note is higher and won't participate in the bend. In fact, the B will be *less* able to bend if you remove the valve.

So now you have a harp where all the blow notes are bendy and responsive the the pitch component in throat vibrato, and where several of the draw notes sound and bend like diatonic notes.

The downsides to this are:

-- Increased leakiness - some players find their instrument unacceptably leaky after removing outside valves.
-- Dissimilar tonal qualities between blow notes and draw notes, and even among some of the draw notes. Some players prefer, and some styles of music require, similarity and evenness of tonal qualities from note to note.

If you decide you prefer having the instrument fully valved, you can either reattach the previous valves, if they're in good condition (i.e., flat) or install new ones. Just scrape of the glue reside from where the old valve was attached, and use something like Duco cement. Place a tiny dab of glue at the base of the valve, then place it on the reedplate. Make sure the valve covers the slot entirely (sides and front end), then hold down the glued base with a finger for a few moments, then allow to dry for a few minutes.