Great threads on the forum lately about custom harps and such. Many good points and very educational. Thanks to all!
I just don't want new players, players that do not want to invest yet in a custom harp, and players that do not want to spend hours working on a harp to think overbending is not available to them.
I play the Golden Melody by Hohner. I take the cover plates off, but I do not take apart the reedplate from the comb. I use a round toothpick and cut about 1/4 inch off the end with scissors. On holes 4 thru 10 I gap both blow and draw reeds. I'm really not into overblowing hole 1...yet.
On the blow reeds I put the toothpick inside the hole and pry up against the center of the reed gently. I close the gaps to the point that the gap is barely visible...maybe less than 1/64 inch.
On the draw reeds I do the same thing except I lay the harp and the bottom of my palm on a table for steadiness and push down with the toothpick in the center of the reed.
Note...some of the higher notes can be gapped until no gap is visible...I guess because the reeds are so short, but these are mainly for overdraws which a lot of good overblowers do not use.
Hold the cover plates on and make sure all the reeds sound easily with normal blow and draw. If not, open up a hair. Sometimes moving a reed such a small amount that the eye can't detect it makes all the difference.
I don't do anything else to the harp. The rest is PRACTICE PRACTIC PRACTICE the technique. Once you sound an overblow you are still a long way from using it during performance, especially as quick passing notes and such.
With these harps I have no problem sustaining overblows and overdraws, playing them fat with a nice vibrato and bending then up 1/2 step.
I do have Buddha harps and they sound sweeter and more in tune, plus normal bending is easier, but I did have to go in and tighten the gaps.
If I was just learning to overblow I would just focus on hole 6 on an old harp..preferably something between and A and a D.
By no means do I call what I do customizing and I'm sure there are more precise methods to shaping a reed....but this works great for me.
If anyone wants to try overblows at Hill Country I would be more than happy to help. Just bring any old harp that the 6 blow and draw work fine on and be able to take the coverplates on and off for me.
Gapping is very important but technique is the key. If you play single notes tongue blocked I'm not really qualified to help you.
Thanks for the post. Like yourself, I'm so pleased to have discovered the basic art of gapping.
It's made the world of difference to my harps and not just from the OB/OD angle but also to general responsiveness.
I carry out the same procedure as you with the reed plates left in place. As far as the OB's are concerned, I have found it helpful to press the reed gently and fractionally down in the slot at the rivet end. I have tried some embossing on the draw reeds but am not good enough at it yet to detect a noticeable difference.
I find holes 4,5& 6 are pretty useful ob's but haven't focused on hole 1 yet which might be useful in due course. I can also set OD's for 7,8,9 & 10 but don't use them yet so it's just a case of setting them so I can use them in future.
I am happy with the way thing are at the moment and don't intend to take things any further in the near future. However should I need to bend up OB's in my playing then I will look into the matter of spending a lot more time working on my harps.
A word of caution in closing the gaps. I found when I first set the gaps to acheive easy overblows, I had set them a bit to tight and although the normal blow note sounded ok with the cover plates off, when I reassembled the harp and played with vigour the normal blow notes started to choke and I had to ease the gaps out a bit.
This is marginally a thread hijack....or, at a minimum, a pinball deflection into an angle.
The No 1 OB, while more of a passing note, is a good one. I was at the late Buddha M's house when this came up on this very forum. There was a contention from an un-named party that the No 1 OB could NOT be sustained. Well, that ain't true.
Chris helped me work it out in a very short time and it works. He likened the sound chamber to opening your self up like you were trying to accommodate the shape and volume of a grapefruit. Lo and behold, it works. Really the thing that gets to me when I'm holding it is that the reed resonance hurts my teeth when sustained. Close tolerance gapping is key as well.
Thanks for the info. However, someone who does not know what they are doing and has no feel for how to get the gap just right, can easily screw up a good harp by going to far. That is based on my own personal experience. I think it would be much better to practice on an old or cheap harp until one gets the hang of it. It's a bad feeling to bend a reed or otherwise mess up a harp that played pretty good to start with. ---------- My YouTube Channel
Last Edited by on Jan 14, 2011 10:23 AM
Unlike some of the other reed/slot adjustments, gapping is pretty much reversible. Gap too low, just push the reed back up a little. No long term damage.
I'd advise anyone who is worrying to get an old junk harp and actually break a reed on it on purpose. You'll find the force needed to do so surprisingly heavy.
@thread
I would like to say that (IMHO) beginners should be concentrating on technique rather than tinkering. All the bends are there with the out of the box factory gapping. A lot people don't like to admit it: they'll point you to videos of what happens in the factory to show that stock harps are poorly setup. Quite frankly it's rubbish. All the bends are there even on the cheapest, nastiest $5 Chinese junker. Sure there might be a little inconsistency, but that should be part of the learning process - transferability. Whoever heard of a drummer who could only play Ludwig shells? or a guitarist who could play a lick on a '59 Les Paul, but not on a 2011 Tele?
Gapping is about making a harp work to your playing style better. It isn't always automatically about overblows and it isn't always about lowering the gaps. I say work out what your playing style is first - then decide if you need it.
greyowl....To be honest, I do not know the ideal pressure point to push/pry against when gapping. Logic tells me that if I bend the reed near the rivet distance X, that the free end of the reed will move several times X....also by experimenting, I've noticed that if I apply the pressure near the free end, I have more control. You can actually bottom out some of the longer reeds by pressing the free end and get no change in gap. So I go with the middle part.
Thats what I do not know...which is better?? which afects the arc of the reed in a positive or negative way?? could there be a differnt pressure point based on reed length?? I DO NOT know what is ideal, just what I have discovered works for me.
You can play chromatically without bending overbends up. It just kind of came on its own after much practice.
I use the 7 overdraw a lot. Sometimes on slow blues, at the IV chord I'll play 9 blow, 9 draw, 8 draw, then hit 7 overdraw and hold with vibrato, then go on down the blues scale..pretty cool.
I hope I didn't do anything wrong by starting another thread.
I can play the 1 OB but not well enough to say its usable.
MR.VLU....Buddha was adamant about teaching overbends to even beginner students. Said it made them better players sooner.
And he was also adamant that overblows didn't need setups. Not sure I agree with either statement completely.
Bending and overblows are related techniques. If you can't bend, you're not going to be able to overblow. If you have to gap to get a regular bend then your technique isn't up to it and chasing overblows with poor technique will be a waste of time.
You can overblow most Hohners - especially hole 6 in keys above C - out of the box, without any gapping at all.
Good point! I guess you should be able to bend well before hitting the overbends.
I have been able to get OBs out of the box...but not all the holes I use and not with the ease I can after gapping....I did have to tighten the gaps on my Buddha harps, but I'm sure his technique was different than mine. I should note that I am a very lite player and let amplification do the work. I was forced to practice quietly...lol
I should clarify my point. I carefully press down near the rivet end at first to assist against ob squeal (and this has worked for me) and then like you I adjust the gap at the other end by nudging the reed somewhere near the centre. There is a Youtube vid showing this technique (narrated in italian) think it's on Jim's compilation. I'll post a link if I find it.
