jnorem
522 posts
Aug 10, 2014
6:00 PM
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This is pretty interesting, about adding to the thickness of a SP20's reed plates. I enjoy this guy's videos, he's like the Mr. Rogers of harmonica.
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Call me J
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nacoran
7918 posts
Aug 10, 2014
7:11 PM
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I like his articles. Something about the pace of articles seems to work better for me that videos- you can skim the parts you get and go back over the tough parts easier.
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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florida-trader
511 posts
Aug 10, 2014
8:11 PM
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Mauro's double reed plates are very nice. I have two of his double Marine Band plates. I love them. I will be getting some double Special 20 reed plates to marry up with the CNC milled SP20 combs I showed about 2 weeks ago. I think they will turn out to be great harps. We'll see..........
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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nacoran
7919 posts
Aug 10, 2014
8:30 PM
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jnorem, I haven't played an extra thick reed plate per se, but I've played thinner (cheaper) reed plates, which I guess makes the regular ones 'thicker'. I'm not sure it's fair to compare the sound though, because they also have thinner reeds.
Thinner reeds and plates still seem pretty responsive, but there is a tiny sound to them.
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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jnorem
525 posts
Aug 10, 2014
8:36 PM
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Tom, is it a really dramatic difference in the volume?
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Call me J
Last Edited by jnorem on Aug 10, 2014 8:37 PM
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barbequebob
2675 posts
Aug 11, 2014
11:37 AM
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I've played a Filisko custom double thick reed plate Marine Band that Winslow Yerxa let me play some years back. It does make a harp player louder, BUT because the reed has a much wider swing and there's easily 2-4 times more air going thru the instrument and the reed, even if you play the slightest bit too hard, ESPECIALLY in the note bending process, you'll stress the living crap out of the reeds and they will blow out really quick.
I have a similar warning to players who use harps with thicker reed plates like on the Hering 1923 Vintage Harp or the Hohner Blues Bender, which have a reed plate thickness of 1.20mm, (wheras most all other harps tend to have a reed plate thickness of 0.90mm, so double thick is 1.80mm) and players complain about them blowing out fast, but it's for the same reasons I mentioned above, and you can count on the average player, who has ZERO breath control to do one thing right off the bat, and that's blame the harmonica for the blow out problem and not once owning up to the fact that their playing technique is the REAL problem for it blowing out super fast.
Unless a player has EXCELLENT control of their breath force (and unfortunately, the average player does NOT have control of their breath force at all), I would not recommend it for the average player 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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florida-trader
512 posts
Aug 11, 2014
2:09 PM
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J - the simple answer to your question is yes. They are louder and the tone is great.
And what barbquebob says is true. Quick funny story. There was a similar thread on MBH about a year ago and Bob issued the same caution. At that point I had been playing my two double reed MB's for about a year without incident. So I sort of (mentally") poo poo'ed Bob's comments. Kiss of death. About a week later I blew out a reed in my A harp and about a month later I blew one out in my G harp. And I do not blow out reeds normally. The good news is that I know how to replace reeds and I have plenty of donor plates. So it is akin to a guitar player breaking a string as far as I am concerned. I know that's not the case for a lot of people.
The moral to the story is listen to Bob. He knows what he's talking about. But I am excited about making some double reed plate Special 20's with milled combs.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
Last Edited by florida-trader on Aug 11, 2014 2:10 PM
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LittleBubba
306 posts
Aug 11, 2014
2:33 PM
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@Tom: you hit a chord with me. Years ago, BBQ posted some similar advice at a time when I'd purchased my first 1923. When I first got the harp I felt like I was not going to be able to play it. I decided to push it to the back of my A harp rotation, and break it in slowly ( in my case, by warming it up and huffing some long chords ). In time, I backed off my use of force and found some great tunes to use it on. I think it's a great chording harp.. bell-like tones.
Last Edited by LittleBubba on Aug 11, 2014 2:33 PM
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barbequebob
2676 posts
Aug 12, 2014
10:16 AM
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@LittleBubba -- The Hering 1923 Vintage Harp sounds great for chording is because it's tuned to 7LJI and it's one of the last ones still tuned that way. Most diatonic harps since the early 90's have been tuned to either ET, sometimes 19LJI, or some sort of compromise tuning. The 7LJI is the way the MB's were tuned until the mid 80's, so if you use that harp with many of the old masters' recordings, it'll match up more in line than most of the harps OOTB these days.
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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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