Last night I made my very first attempt disassemble and tune a harmonica. My special 20 in A which i love was badly out of tune. For some reason lots of the notes were sharp.
Anyway I found a youtube video and learned how to do it, gently filing away the reeds near the reed rivet. I ended up correcting 1,3,4 and 6 blow and 1,2 and 4 draw. I was pretty pleased with myself however......
When I put the thing back together and start playing it I notice that the 2 draw and 6 blow are no longer as responsive as they used to be. There is now a fraction of a second of air going through before the note sounds. Very annoying.
For fun I decided to test the 6 overblow. Low and behold the overblow plays as easily as the natural 6 blow. It's amazing.
So, I have tuned my harmonica, made it less responsive and made it easy to overblow.
WHAT HAVE I DONE?
Can I fix the responsiveness of 2 draw and 6 blow and keep the overblow capability? Have I destroyed my harmonica?
If you tighten a gaps on a hole enough, it will overblow easily, but you will probably have have trouble when you hit the hole hard - it will stick. If the gap is too loose, you get a leaky hole. You need to find the sweet spot for every reed on every hole.
There are three videos in a series. Here is the first one.
Practice on a few old harps before you work on your favorite harp. ----------
Last Edited by on Nov 05, 2010 3:05 AM
