Well i'll try to keep it short. I know there are alot of videos online of people showing how to emboss. I recently found out that its harder than it looks. So i suppose my question is how many of you actually do this yourself? And to what extent? Light heavy etc. And also what is the method you use? Its has to be time consuming to do correctly and thats just to one harp. I recently got my first custom comb .. and flat sanded the reed plates on a harp and couldnt believe the difference it made. Night and Day. Which is what lead me down the embossing rabit hole. So any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Before the serious embossers weigh in, I'll just say that I read Jason Ricci's mention of accordion players using the 'magic penny' and I tried that to improve the response of a slow responding note on a harp I had. It worked. So I carried on and did the low notes. I took it too far with one slot - well you have to don't you to know how far is too far - and found it was easily reversed.
On this particular harp, I reached a limit because the reeds weren't perfectly parallel to the slots - you know, to a particular tolerance.
It was an experiment, which worked. In practice I'll only do this to fix something I think is wrong.
Last Edited by MindTheGap on Dec 08, 2015 11:05 PM
I only emboss hole 3..i find it helps on the bends.I use to do all the slots but nowadays i just do 3 because i came to the conclusion that with a lot of modern Harps the tolerances are so much better that it is not needed for my style of playing. My method was the 'penny' one. ( i don't overblow)
Thanks alot for the responses. Hadnt actually thought or heard of the penny. But i also will consider only doing the first 3 or 4 holes ... that actually makes alot of sence. Thanks again.
"I recently got my first custom comb .. and flat sanded the reed plates on a harp and couldnt believe the difference it made. Night and Day."
That's what's supposed to happen! Cheers!
Embossing:
Less is more.
If you emboss too much, the tone becomes shrill. If you overdo one note, it will stick out like a sore thumb.
Is embossing good or bad? Should you do it? That depends on your expectation. It all depends on what you want. Don't do it for the sake of doing it.
Don't do it if you have high expectations but refuse to address more basic problems first. Specifically, if your harp is not airtight or if the reed shape is wrong, embossing won't help much if at all.
Do it because:
- You want to improve the response - You want a little more volume - You like a bright sound.
I do it occasionally. I havent done a whole harp since the first couple or 3. Ive been quite cautious since. Pretty happy with results i get without going there, usually. I think maybe current production harps are a little tighter than they were 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.
First off that comb was one of yours zajac so thanks.
My main reason for tryin to emboss was for airtightness as i said. But also responsiveness .. i dont overblow as of yet ... still want to master what i CAN do. Thus far i play with really tight gaps..practically as small as i can get without choking during normal playing. It just feels more responsive to me that way. I do some shaping. And just started with flattening reed plates and combs. Just really trying to get the best "handling" out of my harps. But it sounds like a light emboss should be all i wanna mess with. Any other suggestiobs zajac?
When I first started "optimizing" my harps, I spent hours embossing (and fixing over-embossing) as tightly as I could, but now I am content with a very light embossing. It seems improving the tolerances by even 25% makes a great difference to response without incurring the liabilities of going further. But my technique is not yet where closer tolerances would be much advantage. I won't emboss higher than D in any case because higher harps tend to respond quickly and are already shrill to my ear. I find shaping and gapping on higher instruments are enough to improve any reeds that respond inadequately. But,like most advice on the site, this suits my taste and skill level, and everyone is different. Go carefully and enjoy the journey Killa!
Chris i think your right. Ive been trying for the last few days. Spent most of the time de embossing and reshaping reeds. Put the hurtin on an old lee oskar. Ive found that if you just take that rough edge down from the factory stamping ... it's does help. I think full embossing may be more trouble than its worth. Think Ill stick to my normal setup + flat sanding.
also,i think different harps respond better to embossing than others.
for example,i will emboss lower harpmaster/bluesmaster/bushman DF but i have never seen the need to emboss a manji or promaster. ---------- www.shakeylee.com
My take: If you don't overblow, you don't need to emboss. Much, much more important to response is the reed profile.
It took me years to figure out just what is meant by "reed profile" only to discover that there are several meanings.
What I mean is how the shape of the reed along its length influences how it enters (and leaves) the reed slot.
Andrew has a fine video showing this (see 6:45 or so).
If you want really detailed instructions, get Richard Sleigh's "Hot Rod Your Harmonica" videos. They also include embossing instructions if you're absolutely determined to do that (I personally hate the way it makes a harp sound, but I am not an overblower).
Thanks for the advice yall. I think i will look harder into better profiling my reeds. I do kind of work the reeds to swoop the tip up ... so i can get a tighter gap without stalling. Ive heard that people also file a divot out from under the reed tip. Not sure what its called .. but is this benificial?
Im totally not set on embossing. I think i may try using a reed wrench to turn the reed out of the gap n then run a penny down the slot a few times just to knock that stamping edge down and give a light emboss. But probably only to the first few holes. And that way it wont push the reed down into the slot. I have tried the method of using a blade type tool to do one edge at a time. Harder than it looks. Its aslo hard to tell how much progress you ve made ... looks like youve done nothing until the reed sticks. Lol .... it seems time could be better spent else where. Like actually playing. 8^)
Is that hot rod book really that informative. I figured most of the info could be found on the internet.
Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on Dec 10, 2015 9:57 AM
