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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Nail Polish or Epoxy Glue to Lower Reed Pitch?
Nail Polish or Epoxy Glue to Lower Reed Pitch?
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wolfkristiansen
433 posts
Sep 29, 2019
10:58 PM
Apologies if this has been asked and answered before. I did a fairly extensive search on MBH and couldn't find anything.

I want to slightly lower the pitch of some reeds-- to get one of my harps back to 7-limit just intonation. I'm thinking about putting a drop of nail polish or epoxy glue on the tip, and then removing enough to get the desired pitch.

Has anyone tried nail polish to do this? Did it work? Has anyone tried epoxy glue? Did it work?

Please focus on the materials I'm asking about. (I know about filing the reed close to the rivet, or putting Blu-Tack on the tip.) Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

wolf kristiansen
Martin
1595 posts
Sep 30, 2019
5:40 AM
As a rather hopeless harp techician I´ve set my (faltering) hope to nail polish, when these things have been called for. Can report some success there.

The time it takes to solidify gives you opportunity to remove/add whatever is needed for the correct pitch.
My aim has only been to lower the pitch on some low-priced harps that won´t lend themselves to OB, and it has worked just fine with nail polish -- as long as it´s in the neighbourhood of a halfnote lower or so: I have not tried any more extended pitch corrections, and maybe then nail polish isn´t heavy enough.
/Martin
florida-trader
1449 posts
Sep 30, 2019
11:51 AM
Solder is super easy to use and the best way to lower the pitch on reeds. I can elaborate if you like or I can shut up if you want to stick with the nail polish and/or epoxy thing, which I think is a mistake.
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Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
Blue Moon Harmonicas
wolfkristiansen
434 posts
Sep 30, 2019
12:52 PM
Hi florida-trader-- I'm open to the idea of soldering; please elaborate. I'm a newbie when it comes to soldering.

Here are questions that spring to mind:

1. Recommended solder? Percentage of lead, copper, tin, silver or whatever. Brand.
2. Recommended soldering iron? Tip size, power, etc. Brand.
3. Tips on protecting the rest of the harp while soldering? I've heard of inserting a metal shim under the reed to act as a heat sink; are there other things I can do?
4. Tips on preparing the reed before soldering? Should I roughen the tip with emery cloth, for instance?
5. Any other tips on adding solder to a reed?
6. Tips on the best way to remove solder when I tune. Size and type of file, etc.

If you respond to even some of these questions, I will be grateful. If you have dealt with some of these questions in earlier posts, point me to them, and I will look.

Anyone else have ideas or experience with nail polish/epoxy/solder?

Cheers,

wolf kristiansen
florida-trader
1451 posts
Sep 30, 2019
1:39 PM
Let me try to keep it simple.

1. Use lead free solder. It is mostly silver, tin, and sometimes copper.

2. I’m not an expert on soldering irons. I use one that I bought at Home Depot. Works fine for me.

3. I use paper to shim up the reed and isolate it from the reed plate. I keep 3x5 file cards on my bench and just cut a small piece of a card to use. The solder will not stick to the paper so there is no risk of soldering the reed to a metal shim or the reed plate.

4. I do clean the metal off before using the solder. I don’t use emery cloth. I use a Shofu Brownie on a rotary tool. Simple. Easy. Effective. But I see no reason why you can’t use a file or a piece of sandpaper to freshen up the surface of the metal.

5. Here’s a big key. Don’t, repeat, DO NOT, just put a long stick of solder on the roll up to your reeds. It is way too easy to apply way way way too much solder. I cut little tiny pieces of the solder – perhaps 1/6” to 1/8” long. That’s all it takes to retune a reed a semi-tone. I swab flux on the reed. Then I place a small piece of solder on the reed with a pair of tweezers. Hit it with your soldering iron and if you have fluxed the reed, it will spread evenly onto the reed.

6. The best way to remove the solder is however you normally tune. I use a Shofu Brownie or a Polyurethane polishing pin on a rotary tool. If you only use the small pieces of solder, you will get good at getting the reed close to where you want it to me so you don’t have to grind off a bunch of excess solder.

If you happen to get some solder on the side of the reed, it is easy to remove with a file or even an X-Acto Knife.

The keys are to use flux and small pieces of solder. Makes your life much easier.


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Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
Blue Moon Harmonicas
wolfkristiansen
435 posts
Sep 30, 2019
2:11 PM
Thank you! I will solder and report back.
The non-technical tasks I still have are finding the exact frequencies for 7-limit just tuning, and a computer program that shows the pitch as my harp sounds through a microphone into the computer.

Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
WinslowYerxa
1655 posts
Oct 05, 2019
6:55 PM
You can tune to 7-limit just (or any other intonation scheme) by using offsets in cents from equal temperament; tuning to exact frequencies is way too hard a target to hit and requires a different set of frequencies for each key. The most basic info for just:

Perfect fifths should be 2 cents larger than ET
Perfect fourths should be 2 cents smaller than ET
Major thirds should be 14 cents smaller than ET.

Everything else gets squidgy, depending on how committed you are to 7-limit just.

There's also the practice of tuning the draw notes 2 cents or so sharp to compensate for breath depression of pitch, and whether to tune to A440-441-442-443, etc., partly to compensate for pitch depression and partly to raise lowered notes (such asn thirds and sevenths) closer to standard pitch. A442, which I favor, seems to be the most widely used.
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Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
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Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Oct 05, 2019 6:57 PM
WinslowYerxa
1656 posts
Oct 05, 2019
7:00 PM
Many tuning apps include various temperaments. Peterson tuners and apps are widely considered the gold standard, and you can get them for both computers and phones.

On a Mac, you can use this one:
http://www.katsurashareware.com/strobe/strobe.html

I'm sure there are similar ones for Windows or Linux.
----------
Harmonica lessons with one of the world's foremost experts
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
SPAH 2020 convention in Saint Louis, August 11-15

Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Oct 05, 2019 7:08 PM


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