6SN7
428 posts
Mar 29, 2014
10:05 AM
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Howdy.
Today I was in harmonica customizing hell. Two of my Crossovers, keys of D and Eb, have a reed (4 draw) that are flat and very out of tune, particularly when I do a 1-4 TB. Ouch!
I did this with my friend who is an excellent customizer and he walked me thru the process. After plinking and then shimming the reed, I removed (w/ a electric tooll with a rotary sanding head) some of the metal from the tip of the reed. Regrettably, the reed kept slipping back out of tune and my friend told me that the reeds in bothharps were cracked.
He told me there were two things I could do:
1) order and install new reed plates (37$ a set) or
2)send it to a customizer and have them replace the individual reed.
What do you think is the most cost effective to do?
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arzajac
1325 posts
Mar 29, 2014
10:08 AM
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Reed replacement.
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica service and repair.
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HarveyHarp
579 posts
Mar 29, 2014
10:16 AM
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You will pay 15 to 25 dollars to have your harp cleaned and have the reed replaced and the tuning rough checked. With postage two ways you will spend about 25 to 35 dollars total. a new Crossover is $64, so lyou are saving almost 30 dollars.
So there are two ways to look at this. If you order a new harp, then you can save your old one for parts, and after a few different keys have gone out, then you can learn to replace your own reeds. And after that, there is not limits to what you can do.
There has to be a breakeven point in there somewhere, but I think it is probably variable.
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HarveyHarp
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MP
3134 posts
Mar 29, 2014
10:49 AM
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What arzajac and Harvey said.
If you learn to fix your own harps you'll need tools, screws, and reeds. These up the cost of DIY replacement initially but the sky is the limit as Harvey puts it.
Depends what you want to do. Are you fumble fingers or good w/ your hands? Do you like DIY hell? Do you just wanna play the damn harp like a normal person. :-)?
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Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
Last Edited by MP on Mar 29, 2014 10:50 AM
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arzajac
1326 posts
Mar 29, 2014
10:54 AM
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Play harp like a normal person? I don't know any harp players who are normal.
Well... Todd Parrot is probably normal. ...Yes, I want to play like him!
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica service and repair.
Last Edited by arzajac on Mar 29, 2014 10:55 AM
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MP
3135 posts
Mar 29, 2014
10:57 AM
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HAH!! my bad. Todd Parrott may be normal. I doubt it. What normal person wants to be around a buncha dudes playing harps? Even fly to events w/ a buncha dudes playing harps? I rest my case.
You gotta admit though. What we do aint what a natural man ought to be doing. a reed is one 200th of an inch thick. we drop screws the size of fleas on the floor and sometimes go looking for them. we tried to put a rivet back into the reed it came out of. we failed and tried again.
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Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
Last Edited by MP on Mar 29, 2014 11:07 AM
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jnorem
134 posts
Mar 29, 2014
11:08 AM
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Why order a new harp, when you can instead order the reed plates? In fact, lately I've been wondering about the practicality of having a reed replaced. You can order Crossover reed plates for $45. Now, I don't know what it would cost to have a reed replaced on that model but I'm betting it would be fairly close to that. So why not just order the plates?
I'm not very good with my hands, and I'll never be much of a harmonica tech but replacing reed plates, that i can do.
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Call me J
Last Edited by jnorem on Mar 29, 2014 11:10 AM
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MP
3136 posts
Mar 29, 2014
11:13 AM
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For a total cost of $38 that includes shipping you can have two harps fixed, cleaned, tuned and gapped so they play like butter.
that's $19 per harp.
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Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
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jnorem
135 posts
Mar 29, 2014
11:15 AM
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I must say that sounds tempting, Mark.
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Call me J
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Gnarly
971 posts
Mar 29, 2014
12:29 PM
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I examined Todd thoroughly and he appears to be as normal as you get.
For a musician.
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MP
3138 posts
Mar 29, 2014
2:27 PM
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Gnarly, Sometimes people can fake the tests. Did you do a urine sample or just ink blots?
I'm not saying you did a bad job but these musician types are slippery as eels.
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Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
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robbert
296 posts
Mar 29, 2014
2:47 PM
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Send them to a harp tech. You will be very happy, as I have been, with this strategy.
Eventually, it's good to acquire the knowledge and tools to accomplish your own upgrades and repairs.
When I'm tired of gigging/playing/practicing, or not in the mood for it, I often work on a harp that needs tuning, gapping, adjustment, repair, etc.
Like deepening your musical skills through practice and playing, harp mechanics finesse comes with time, but is a great skill to have. It somehow brings you closer to the instrument.
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Gnarly
972 posts
Mar 29, 2014
8:25 PM
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MP, I lined everybody at SPAH up in a row and Todd was the levelest.
I think . . .
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6SN7
429 posts
Mar 30, 2014
7:29 AM
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Many thanks for the responses!
Just to be clear, it's a choice between buying new reed plates (@$45) or have the reed replaced and serviced.
The other 9 reeds are perfect, well gapped and tuned from the factory. I am not crazy about the idea of replacing the reed plate as the old one will just sit around and gathering dust in my sock draw with my other crummy harmonica accessories. But on the other hand, sending it off to be fixed can take a long time. Whatever, thanks for the resp[onses.
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Frank
4103 posts
Mar 30, 2014
12:11 PM
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Since that is a simple fix - maybe someone will barter with you ?
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Kingley
3561 posts
Mar 30, 2014
12:24 PM
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All the harp techs on here do good work so I hear. Arzajac has a backlog at the moment so I'd suggest sending it to either Mark Prados (MP) or Scott Woerner (smwoerner). As their turnaround time will most likely be quicker than Andrews is currently. All you need to do is call them or email them and discuss it. They can replace your faulty reed at far less than the cost of a new set of reed plates. Seems like a no brainer to me.
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6SN7
431 posts
Mar 30, 2014
1:50 PM
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@Frank. I dunno about that.
In the past, I collected a whole bunch of covers, reeds, beat harps and finally sent them all off to a customizer as a down payment on some work on some harps. He could use them far better than I. These harps I'd rather keep as the other 9 1/2 reeds are solid and in tune. The Xover is a very well built instrument, maybe the first one "off the shelf" harp I have bought that has the look, feel, and design of a custom harp.
@Kingsley- your suggestion makes sense. Time is another thing I need to keep in mind. My past experience has been that harp work takes time and the turnaround can be long. I understand the mechanics behind that, but still, it is a reality. In the past, I didn't care as harps were affordable, if not cheap, in the past. Today, the harps that I buy are $65-70 each and a full set can run you 900$, as much as a USA made Fender Strat.
I will send them off to get fix and probably buy a Rocket as a stop gap for one of the keys as i don't have a backup.
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groyster1
2576 posts
Mar 30, 2014
2:50 PM
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@kingley
Andrew,mark and Harvey have all serviced my old(mostly mb1896) and word of mouth is best advertising....believe me you wont be disappointed....and it must be labor of love because they don't charge much
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Gnarly
973 posts
Mar 30, 2014
11:56 PM
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@MP Regarding normal--
I played my first gig with a local ensemble, the leader is an ex-SEAL and so calls himself (and the band) Blue Frog.
I met him when he contacted me to do some work on his harps. At the gig today, he was having some trouble with a harp, so I rinsed it well, took the covers off and did some quick stuff (mainly gapping).
Rinsed it again, gave it back to him, we did the gig.
Oh sure, that's normal, doesn't everybody do that?
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STME58
714 posts
Mar 31, 2014
12:03 AM
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When I have a reed that suddenly won't sound, most of the time, rinsing the harp will get it working again. So to me, Gnarly's story sounds quite normal.
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Gnarly
974 posts
Mar 31, 2014
12:46 AM
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Yes, and this was an old one, one of the RP screws was rusted, so it had a certain amount of accumulated "stuff".
Time for my sig line, "You can always improve a harmonica"
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MP
3145 posts
Mar 31, 2014
11:23 AM
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----------Gnarly, Heh, Heh, :-)
here's one, I was at a gig in between sets w/ a student of mine. I had an excellent pre-war MB and he had a new Manji when they first came out.
we were blowing and comparing which harp was louder. It never occurred to us that people might stare or be annoyed.
My 30s? MB was louder.
Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
Last Edited by MP on Mar 31, 2014 11:24 AM
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MP
3146 posts
Mar 31, 2014
11:27 AM
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PS. reed replacement is always cheaper than buying new plates if you go to the right repair guy.
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Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
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Rustydusty
2 posts
Apr 05, 2014
3:05 PM
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Just got reed plates for a Lee Oskar F from Amazon for $18.98 + shipping in "low F". Cleaned up the covers and comb (surprising clean for a 15+ year old harp!) and ended up with a "new" harp for a song I'm doing with our band for our next gig! Hard to beat that price.
Dusty
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groyster1
2579 posts
Apr 05, 2014
3:21 PM
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LO has the best reed replacement price...I only have 4 LOsd and they have never needed it....have had good results from sp20 reedplates from rockin`ron
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Rustydusty
3 posts
Apr 05, 2014
3:48 PM
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My Lee Oskars have never needed repair either! I had two F harps ( the other is a sp20.) and I needed a "low F". Rather than buy a new harp, I went the reed plate route for the first time.
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rockmonkeyguitars
52 posts
Apr 06, 2014
4:54 AM
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I play mostly Hohner blues harps and a reed plate replacement costs me 5 quid more than a whole new harp. Replacing a reed costs about the same as a new harp when you factor in shipping to and from. So for years I just got new harps but never through out the old ones. Eventually I decided to start trying to replace my own reeds. Because the harps were already dead, it didn't matter that I messed up a few but eventually I got the hang of it. Then I didn't have to buy another new harp for almost 10 years because I just parted out the old ones.
So on more expensive harps like the MB deluxe it's worth sending in to fix the reed. On cheaper harps like a standard marine band or blues harp I think you should save the old harp and buy a new harp. When you have a stock pile learn to change your own reeds and fix the broken harps
Last Edited by rockmonkeyguitars on Apr 06, 2014 7:34 AM
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MP
3153 posts
Apr 06, 2014
3:09 PM
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I beat that by .98. Plus I set up the action. :-)
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Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
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