Re:tuning btw Lee Oskars stay in tune longest

[Barry Schaede <barrys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

George Miklas is correct. If the reed starts to drop in pitch rapidly 
it's cracked.  F&R Farrel company sells a tool outfit for removing and 
replacing the reed in trouble.  What they don't sell are replacement 
reeds.  These you'll have to salvage from other dead harmonicas.  The 
problem with this of course is that the reeds that go bad are the ones 
you play and bends the most so the same reeds in every D (or any key that 
you play) harmonica will always be cracked or severly fatigued.  This 
means that you'll have to use a different reed than the one that you 
initially broke.  The one above it on the harmonica is going to be a step 
and a half lower in pitch.  That's a bunch to retune.  (I'm using your 4 
draw as the example) To answer your original question the way you tune 
harmonica reeds is by removing material from the free end to raise the 
pitch and removing material from the fixed end to lower the pitch.  You 
can also silver solder the free end to make it heavier to lower the 
pitch.  A detailed step by step approach to tuning is available in the 
handbook that comes with the Lee Oskar Harmonica Toolkit.  This is 
available from either Kevin's Harps or F&R Farrell Company.  There are 
also 2 Blackie Shackner books tha detail the finer mechanics of tuning.  
One is called Everything you wanted to know about harmonica but didn't 
know who to ask.  The other one is titled The complete book of "State of 
the Art" diatonic and chromatic harmonica repair.  I also think there may 
have been some articles in the HIP that may have touched on tuning 
related theories and Steve Baker's fine book the Harp Handbook also 
touches on this subject.  If anyone's still interested I'd be happy to 
post a detailed version of what I do to tune and retune my harmonicas.  
Remeber that I am primarily a diatonic player and therefore there is 
where my emphasis would lie.  Tuning and offset changed my relationship 
to harmonica dramaticly.  It's not for everyone, but for the people that 
do chose to learn to tune the benefits are many.  FJM sorry for the long post