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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
arcing - which reeds
arcing - which reeds
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hannes
23 posts
Jan 28, 2014
3:52 AM
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When I get a new harp my attitude is to do only as much as necessary (and as little as possible) to make it suit my playing style. So I usually limit myself to correct the finetuning if necessary and set the gaps to my liking. But recently I experimented with arcing the draw 2 and draw 3 reeds of my A harp and the bends were much easier and smoother after that, so I might add that to my "customizing" too. Which other reeds should I consider arcing, e.g. to facilitate the hole 4, 5, 6 overblows or the hole 10 blow bend?
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arzajac
1270 posts
Jan 28, 2014
5:34 AM
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Hi Hannes.
Basically, all the reeds would benefit from being shaped in such a way to allow as much of the reed as possible to pass through the slot at the same time.
It's like hitting a baseball. Sometimes you hit it well enough to get on base. Once in a while (rarely for me since I'm not talented) you hit the ball just right and really *connects*! You feel a satisfying feeling and the ball really travels. Most of the time, a harp's reeds will be set up well enough to play fine. But when the reeds are all set up to play optimally, it's like hitting a home run with every puff of air. This is because your air is working most efficiently when the reed is shaped properly.
Sometimes this means adding an arc (when you look at the reed at rest) and sometimes it can mean other changes to the reed shape.
What reeds to do to improve overblows on 4, 5 and 6? Both the blow and the draw reeds on those holes.
How to shape reeds? Try this: Find some harps that plays poorly on the 2 and 3 draw. Take their reed plates off the comb as well as the reed plate you experimented on and had success with. Compare the good one with the bad ones.
Place a sheet of white paper in front of you and hold the reed plate up in the air parallel to the sheet so that you can see the white paper through the reed slots. Use a pointed object to push the tip of the 2 draw reed into the slot and look at how the light disappears. I bet that on the reeds you arced and which play well, you will see most of the light disappear at the same time. On the reeds that play poorly, you probably will see the reed go through the slot with lots of light still shining through.
You need to shape the reed so that although curved at rest, when it passes through the slot it is straight.
I hope this helps.
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica service and repair.
Last Edited by arzajac on Jan 28, 2014 9:48 AM
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SuperBee
1647 posts
Jan 29, 2014
11:14 AM
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Nice explanation, Andrew. Kudos!
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