Stevelegh
613 posts
Oct 26, 2012
10:54 AM
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I think I've blown out my first reed!
1 blow is playing, but making an awful 'tinkling' noise as well. Is that a blown reed?
The real pisser is it's a Joe Spiers MB. I love this harp. It's going to join me in my grave.
Help!
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arzajac
871 posts
Oct 26, 2012
11:26 AM
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Usually a blown reed sounds flat. Tinkling could be that something is stuck. Have you looked at the slot?
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Frank
1320 posts
Oct 26, 2012
11:24 AM
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You sure it's the 1 blow and not the 5 draw?
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smwoerner
132 posts
Oct 26, 2012
11:46 AM
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The Tinkling sounds like an alignment issue. A little agressive tapping on the leg could have caused the reed to shift a bit or tweaked the alignment of the plates. A quick light cleaning may be enough to solve the issue.
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walterharp
962 posts
Oct 26, 2012
11:50 AM
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or it could be out of line... hold up to light and see if it is hitting the edge of the reed slot.. a reed wrench can right it up
worst case, send it back to joe and he will fix it up. i sent a stage 2 back to him for a reed and he has upped his game on his stage 2's so he applied his new tricks and charged me just to fix the reed. and he gets to it pretty quick too.
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Stevelegh
615 posts
Oct 26, 2012
12:06 PM
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Guys!
Thank you!
I gave it some hard slaps on the kitchen work surface and it seems to have sorted it.
I've never blown a reed out (I don't think I've ever even put one out of tune) and I didn't know what I was looking for.
Whew!
Muchas gracias.
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Leatherlips
152 posts
Oct 26, 2012
5:23 PM
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Surely that's got to be some kind of record for not blowing out a reed.
Obviously a quality harp you've been using.
I loaned a harp to a fellow harp player who had just blown out his Bb and low and behold, he blew mine out as well and gave it back to me in that condition.
Now that sucks (well it didn't on draw 5).
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walterharp
964 posts
Oct 26, 2012
6:40 PM
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well joe otta be glad his harp survived that ordeal! :-)
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Stevelegh
620 posts
Oct 26, 2012
11:58 PM
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I don't know why, but I've never had a reed go bad on me. I've probably put some out of tune, but not noticed.
The only time I screw up harps is when I tinker with them.
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barbequebob
2054 posts
Oct 27, 2012
7:35 AM
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It may also be the case of some dried on saliva or dead skin.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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Stevelegh
622 posts
Oct 27, 2012
8:06 AM
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Since I switched from tongue blocking to lip pursing, I've noticed my harps are getting a lot more manky due to the amount of slobber required. You're probably right Bob.
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barbequebob
2057 posts
Oct 27, 2012
8:20 AM
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Stevelegh, you may not be aware of something many players new to the technique have a tendency to do and that's press the tongue down on the harp way too hard and this aggravates the problem in a major way and the correct way is to press the tongue VEEEEEERY lightly rather than force it and forcing it dramatically increases the saliva output quite a bit, and gets ramped up big time when combined with playing with too much breath force, plus playing when drunk after drinking beers with the slobbering and many players aren't aware of that at all.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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