From time to time it is customary to post some praise threads up on the forum for those forum members who provide exemplary service to the harmonica community! Well, here's one for Dave Payne at Elk River Harmonicas! He helped me "steelify" a defunct Solist Pro I had sitting in a drawer, and now it is a Low C, all steel-reed, tone MONSTER! Thanks Dave!
Disclaimer: I'm just a satisfied customer, and not affiliated with Elk River Harmonicas in any other way!
Dave is great to do business with. He steelified a souls voice for me, plays nice. I also have some of his optimized solist pro's tuned to 7 limit JI.Great harps. ---------- Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
Great to see someone praising Dave Payne, probably the most helpful guy in the harmonica world. When I first got into pulling harps apart Dave's youtube videos were my guide. This is way before the days of this forum and if I wanted to run an idea by him via email I always got a helpful reply plus that hard to come by thing, encouragement. Most recently it was Dave who came up with the name "Tone-Bone" for the composite materials now popular for making harmonica combs. Love that name and that is how I now describe the combs on the harps I build. And Isaac, you're not such a bad guy yourself, you're pretty good with that electrickery stuff. Pete
no, they don't fit perfectly. SS reedpaltes are smaller and have no coverplate groove you'll have to add yourself. It's just not worth it. Better get a pair of 1847 reedplates.
Thanks Isaac, awesome video from my favorite archeaologist!and thank you for your kind words, WHeezer.
I tried to talk Isaac out of it and talk him into some 1847 reedplates, but he wanted the Session Steel plates for it. They will fit and they will fit perfectly, except for, as you mention, the coverplate groove.
So I thought I'd try one out for myself, so I built a custom Low D for myself with an American Chestnut comb, Session Steel reedplates and 1847 coverplates. I polished the edges smooth on the reedplates and it was the badass-looking harmonica i think I ever built. It looks like something from the 1920s.
It has that 1920s look about it because it has no coverplate grooves. There is certainly more than one way to build a harmonica and I think we're still at a point in our history where harmonicas have been made longer without coverplate grooves than with them. Of all the most basic things you see on a harmonica, the coverplate groove was the last development. Even side vents are about 35 years older.
So back in the days before coverplate grooves, the coverplates bent down at a steeper angle and were a little bit farther down to avoid the problem Isaac solved by filing (he said he was filing down the coverplates).
But there is a much easier way to do that even Isaac did. I didn't file on the coverplates at all. I used a thin strip of duct tape that the lip of the coverplates is pushing down against. You can't see the duct tape at all unless you take it apart. I suppose, in this situation, most people would probably use this micropore tape, but duct tape probably makes for a better story and was what I had laying around.
1) Jim's technically right that the Session Steel reedplates are smaller than the Solist Pro comb, but only in width (not length), and even then only about half a millimeter. And when affixed to the Solist Pro comb, this discrepancy is all at the BACK of the comb, so doesn't interfere at all with how you play it, and isn't noticeable unless you know what you are looking for.
2) I sanded the edges of the reedplates, not the coverplates. The groove IMO, is totally not necessary. In fact, as cool as Dave's duct tape gasket is, I don't think even that's necessary! Check out this photo of my harp and you will see that the connection is very tight. There is no air leakage through at the junction of the coverplate and reedplate.:
3) I have built several woodcombed Special 20's the same way: making them into "sandwich" style harps. And I actually think "sandwich" style harps with reedplates with NO grooves are BETTER than ones with grooves because a) you can get the coverplates right up to the edge of the reedplate, b) the reedplate only goes up to the edge of the comb, c) so taken together these things mean that there is no "lip" of reedplate sticking out, making tongueblocking easier, but more importantly, getting you closer to the reeds for bending and tone purposes, and d) the harps have a wider profile, making you open your mouth up a bit more, and giving you more resonance.
HA! You'd think duct tape were necessary if you had a beard and moustache like mine! My coverplates sit a little farther down than yours. You can do that by either elongating the screw hole in the coverplate or use a smaller screw. I used aught 80 machine screws. Funny you should mention making the harp thicker so you could use a more open, resonant embouchure. Check out what I did on the Low D. It has a very thick comb made from 800-year-old American Chestnut wood, from two chestnut wood combs that were too thin laminated together. It is a beast in every sense of the word. By the way, chestnut comb harps are going to be available from Elk River again probably this fall. I'm going to Ohio get a pickup truck and trailer load of it in the next couple of weeks. That's pretty much a lifetime supply. I have named this harmonica "The Seydel Beastmaster"
Woah! Beastmaster indeed! That looks amazing! I LOVE the look of the open back! How did you get them to have that really nice rounded crimp all the way around, even in the corners? Beautiful! By the way, I've got some 0-80 screws lying around, so I'll definitely give them a try! Thanks for the tip! ---------- == I S A A C ==
You mean the prewarified-looking crimp on the back of the coverplates? If that's it, the 1847 covers are naturally like that. They come pre-prewarified. It is pretty badass when you hold it in your hands, it almost feels like a chromatic.
just so we're all clear on the significance of this thread, i just did a quick forum search...
and i was unable to find "beastmaster."
which makes this the FIRST!
sadly, i had always hoped that Mark Singer was a closet harp freak.
--FJ
p.s. @dave: i'm hitting you up for some low 1847s this summer, when it's time to buy birthday presents for myself. nice work, man. dunno how you have time to do it AND post 32 times a day. /golfclap
p.p.s. @isaac: great vids, btw; love the low chugging.
