florida-trader
228 posts
Jan 18, 2013
8:50 AM
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Let's say you are building a Special 20. You have a set of reed plates with 2 or 3 bad reeds. You also have a set of Marine Band plates in the same key that has all good reeds.
Would you:
a. Use the Marine Band plates as donor plates, pop the necessary reeds off and replace the bad reeds on the SP20 plates, or
b. Drill and tap the Marine Band plates to fit the SP20. You would also have to trim a little bit off the ends because the SP plates are a tad shorter.
I have all the tools necessary to do the job either way. I'm just curious about how you would do it? I would add one other thought. I do a lot of SP20 conversions where I replace the stock recessed comb with a flat comb. SP20 plates don't have a groove in them for the leading edge of the covers, so using a set of MB plates under these circumstances is nice because it gives you the grooves.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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Baker
264 posts
Jan 18, 2013
9:08 AM
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Personally, in your situation, I would probably replace the reeds. Less messing around and less chance of causing damage to the reed plates (warping, scaring etc.).
However, if it were me I would probably order a new set of reed plates – but that's the perfectionist in me :)
EDIT: To qualify my statement
The relationship between the reed plates and the comb are a major issue when it comes to air tightness and therefore the responsiveness of the harp. Using the SP20 reed plates means they should fit nicely with the comb. Trying to adjust the MB reed plates MAY not work out so well.
Reeds can always be gapped/embossed etc. to improve responsiveness.
Last Edited by on Jan 18, 2013 9:22 AM
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HarpNinja
3108 posts
Jan 18, 2013
8:59 AM
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I would use a MB comb and fit the MB to the SP20 covers. If I was using the stock comb, I'd replace the bad reeds...depending on why they were bad, etc.
If you are fixing an old SP20, might as well just go new. If it was a stock SP20 and there was an issue, I'd call Hohner for a new one.
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Custom Harmonicas
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florida-trader
229 posts
Jan 18, 2013
9:15 AM
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Mike. That's a good suggestion. If I was building a SP20 with a flat comb building it on a MB comb and then drilling 2 holes for SP20 covers would be a much simpler than drilling 16 holes and tapping them for the reed plates. The end result would be very acceptable, since there are those who do replace MB covers with SP20 covers on their MBs. Thanks.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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arzajac
959 posts
Jan 18, 2013
9:30 AM
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Hi Tom.
"a. Use the Marine Band plates as donor plates, pop the necessary reeds off and replace the bad reeds on the SP20 plates"
It depends on the plates. Over the years, the brass changed, the tooling and maintenance done to the tooling was changed. If you have a set of really bad Marine Band plates, the reeds are still excellent and I would use them as donor reeds only - I would not use the plate. If the Special 20 plates were bad and the MB plates were good, then I'd think about doing vice versa.
"b. Drill and tap the Marine Band plates to fit the SP20. You would also have to trim a little bit off the ends because the SP plates are a tad shorter.
...
I do a lot of SP20 conversions where I replace the stock recessed comb with a flat comb. SP20 plates don't have a groove in them for the leading edge of the covers, so using a set of MB plates under these circumstances is nice because it gives you the grooves."
In that case, the only thing left are the SP20 coverplates so it's just a Marine Band with new comb and SP20 coverplates. SP20 coverplates need a little modification to best fit the groove of MB plates.
And using SP20 reedplates (Edit - I mean Coverplates!) on a flat comb is less than ideal, too, because the groove really improves airtightness. You don't need that groove when you use the recessed comb.
If a customer wants SP20 coverplates on anything other than a SP20 with stock comb, I try to talk them out of it unless they are really gentle and don't tend to crush their coverplates.
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Last Edited by on Jan 18, 2013 1:40 PM
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HarpNinja
3110 posts
Jan 18, 2013
9:25 AM
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Let me know if you need any tips to drill the covers. It might even be easier to drill through the plates/comb for the more central screw point, but it is easy enough to drill the SP20 covers.
Howard Levy's harps are like that. You can get away with just drilling them and not doing anything else for them to fit.
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Custom Harmonicas
Optimized Harmonicas
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florida-trader
230 posts
Jan 18, 2013
10:46 AM
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Mike. Can you loan me your drill press? I promise - I'll give it right back. :)
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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MP
2650 posts
Jan 18, 2013
11:02 AM
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Hi Tom!
good suggestions so far. i'll pop every reed on the blow plate of an 1896 so i can flat sand it. then, i'll put them right back in. this kind of stuff is easy for me.
i absolutely hate drilling holes. too many ways for me to screw up; drill bits walking, etc.
i think your work would go faster if you use the MB as a the donor. two or three reeds? five or six minutes work for me cuz i like to take my sweet time.
caveat: how flat are those SP/20 plates? i'll go with the flattest plates every time, so in that case- if the MB plates are flatter- i'd drill to fit.
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MP
affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info-
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you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
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HarpNinja
3112 posts
Jan 18, 2013
11:01 AM
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You can find the desktop ones fro $50-60 and they will work just fine. I mean, technically, you could do it with a hand drill too. If you use a punch to get the hole started on the covers, it will work. Just use a bit a size larger than the stock hole.
If you don't tap first, it is really hard to do by hand. That is going off of memory from several years ago, though.
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Custom Harmonicas
Optimized Harmonicas
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florida-trader
231 posts
Jan 18, 2013
11:35 AM
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I'm just kidding about the drill press. I have two big ones and I practically live on them in my shop.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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