I've looked through the archives and it seems as though it's normal for the draw reeds to go flat with use. Is this correct?
I noticed this morning (in the car) that the one-draw (on one of my harps) goes sharp when I draw in a little hard. To the point where I have to pay extra attention not to draw too hard so that I can maintain the proper pitch. I can bend it down just fine, though.
It's a Marine Band in A. I looked into the holes to see if there was any obvious problem like debris. I have not opened the covers to see the other side of the reeds.
So, is this normal wear? Can or should I tune it down? The thing is five months old - if this is normal, do other harps last longer (for example, the only other harps that I can access locally are Golden Melody harps)?
Last Edited by on Sep 24, 2009 10:40 AM
Going sharp when you play it hard is strange--I sure wouldn't tune it down yet, unless another, more experienced guy tells you to do it. Whenever my harps do weird stuff I start by cleaning the shit out of them--Jason Ricci has an excellent vid up on the YT on how to do this with Kaboom and rubbing alcohol:
If it persists in being weird after that--then you might want to look into other measures--just don't tune it until it plays sharp all the time. . .
I had only ever noticed this on my Low D MB, but I can get it on my A. The problem is the shape of your mouth cavity. Lower your tongue and make the cavity bigger, rounder, hollower.
The sharpness is mostly gone now. I have to draw pretty hard to get it to go off. I can get a good strong sound without screwing up the pitch - something I couldn't do before I cleaned it.
I suppose it was/is a combination of both debris and technique.
