Thanks Todd. I find it strange that this lesson has been viewed from here only a few times on YouTube. I put this on my facebook page (Finnish) and it's been watched for two hundred times by the Finnish people. Is it really so that harmonica player's are not interested to tune their harps. I'll fix all old harmonicas or I make something special of them, and I think that this is maybe the only easy "tuning lower" lesson in Youtube, mara
I have used Blu Tack successfully several times to lower reed pitch. I have considered using solder, but did not want lead in my harp. I do not have silver solder, but might try it if I did enough reed lowering to make it worth while.
I also once lowered a reed's pitch by using a rotary tool and carefully removing metal near the rivet of a reed on a Lee Oskar I didn't mind risking. This was to try the "Todd Parrott" tuning lowering the 7 draw. Since I seldom use that altered tuning these days, the harp has not failed so far. I temporarily Blu Tacked some other keys, but then took off the Blu Tack to use standard Richter. A reversible technique is handy!
I have a G chromatic that I needed to lower a reed due to my scavenged replacement reed being too high a pitch. It has held for a couple years so far. [Edit: with Blu Tack]
Usually my reed tuning is to raise pitch on reeds that have weakened but not yet failed, so I don't add weight, I remove material.
The nail polish is an interesting suggestion. I have used nail polish carefully to attach windsavers on chromatics. The risk is the inadvertent spreading of the polish. Joe Leone has reported using old nail polish for windsavers, letting it thicken before using it so that it doesn't run where it shouldn't go. ----------
Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Jul 30, 2017 4:23 PM
@dougharps: Like you I have tried some times to lower the 7D, and it´s been done with nail polish -- bascially attending the same precautions as in the video above. Fine tuning has then been achieved with just a needle or something, scraping away some fragments. I am by No Means a technician, quite the contrary! but this was relatively easy. Now I´m contemplating a "B-thing" tuning, but maybe that requires to big a load of the polish and a need for heavier material?
