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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Gapping question?
Gapping question?
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Matzen
186 posts
Jul 23, 2011
5:06 PM
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When you are gapping a reed... do you want to keep the reed as straight as possible, or do you want a little curve in it? In other words... were should you bend the reed? Should the pressure being applied to the reed be focused in one area? I've seen people gap by pulling up on the end of a reed with a finger, pushing up the middle of the reed with a pik of sorts, and others supporting the reed while bending with a shim?
Hope my question makes sense!
Thanks!
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arzajac
583 posts
Jul 23, 2011
5:49 PM
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I'm sure there is more than one way to look at this. This is what works for me:
I look at the shape of the reed by pushing the middle of the reed down until the reed starts to pass through the slot. For longer reeds, I push somewhere closer to the rivet pad and for shorter reeds somewhere closer to the tip but still in the middle of the reed.
I have had success in making my harps play better by making the reed as straight as possible as it passes through the slot. (It may be curved at rest - don't care) So, if there is a bump, or one area of the reed passes through the slot before then rest, I work that bump out. It's okay (but still not ideal) to have the reed tip curved a little up. This helps when you have the reed shaped just right and you want the gap to be as tight as possible. You can gap really tight and then just curve the tip up a little so you can get more of both worlds - a tighter gap throughout the reed length which gives you more airtightness, but the tip is up so the reed responds better to more breath force.
How much of the reed should be curved? I dunno. the last 1/4? I don't really measure it.
Oh and another thing... Plink the reed maybe five or ten times after you make any change to it. It will try to go back to the former shape. You need to get a feel for it. Less is more - reshape, plink and repeat over and over. And just when you think you have it, put the harp down and come back to it a day or two later - you *will* have to do it over again. It's not you, it's the reed. Be patient.
I wish someone would have told me that when I first started...
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Matzen
187 posts
Jul 23, 2011
8:08 PM
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Thank you very much arzajac!
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