[Harp-L] Why am I killing the 4-blow reed so quickly?

[Opus314 <opus314@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have normally had Lee Oskars as mentioned in my prior post...

But since I've decided to renew my effort to master the instrument...
and I was having trouble with the high notes (holes 7-10)
 I decided to try another brand.

I bought a Key-of-C in the other brand and really liked it. High notes
seemed to play much easier.
But after a couple of weeks the 4-blow reed seemed to go dead and no
longer sounded right. I opened the harp up and the 4-blow looks
funny... more down in the slot than the other reeds around it... and
it doesn't "plunk" right...

I bought another of the same brand in the same key. Got it and it
played great. Very nice instrument.
But, after a couple of weeks the 4-blow reed in that one also started
sounding bad.

What could I be doing?

Could bending the 4-draw somehow effect the 4-blow?

I don't think I'm playing that hard... actually I'm just practicing
simple melodies to improve my accuracy, improve my ear training,
muscle memory, and learn my way around the instrument.

(Hey, I'm a former drummer, we always had big targets, and no need to
listen to melody :)

Over the years I've occasionally fooled around with my half-dozen Lee
Oskars and can't seem to hurt them...
 but I've heard they be difficult to learn to over-blow... so now what
do I do?

One side benefit... I did learn to play the high notes (somewhat) and
can now do so on the Lee Oskars... so at least blowing up the other
two harps did gain me something.

But... I would like to play this other brand... (and even others)
without fear that I'm going to break the harp in a week or two.

Thanks for any help.