Polished reeds

[Douglas Tate <100576.3265@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rick

I'm keeping this public 'cos there seems to be quite a bit of interest in the
effects of alterations of one sort and another to a reed.

First the facts.
a. My body (the harmonica!) is stainless steel with carefully shaped Isopon car
body filler slot inserts.
b reed plates are bolted on at sides and rear only, front is tensioned down by
the force of slightly curved cover plates (I think it makes the reeds and plates
a bit more live (opinion only))
c reed plates were same as issued to Adler in the mid to late fifties by
Trossingen.  These were Long slot, long life reeds on a standard thickness
plate, the plates were nickel plated. ( I had re-worked some of the wooden
bodied #270s sent to Adler so that they played better and lasted longer, it must
have worked, he paid me money! These models impressed me and I aske Trossingen
for 2 pairs of plates which they sent me FOC) The plates were out of tune. At
this point I am slightly hazy because I experimented with several plates with
different techniques. i.e taking reeds off, flattening plates, re plating, reeds
back on, polishing non polishing etc.  I have the feeling that this set did not
have the reeds taken off.
d To polish the reedsI used a thin plastic collar stiffenerunder a reed and abot
800 to 1000 grit wet and dry paper to longitudinally smooth off the upper
surface. There was only a very small material removal ( I would think, less than
1/1000th of an inch) just enough to remove the lateral machining marks and any
tuning marks.   I also gave each reed a couple of swipes along the ling corners
to give a minute radius.  (ie, all good stuff for reducing the likelyhood of
fatigue stress points)
e the above was done in a tremendous hurry(two to three days) so that I could
play the thing in  a competition in 1967.  After a few weeks the tuning, not
good to start with had drifted a little.  I retuned using a graphical method
described a few weeks ago.  Since that time, apart from a single reed tune, I
haven't touched it.  The chord tuning is now poorish, but as I am basically a
single note player, I play any inaccuracies into tune automatically without
thinking.
f This instrument has been my main, and for about 20 years my only one.  I play
it with all sorts of instrumental groups without amplification, and I can be
heard.  It also gets played in sessions, and those guys don't put up with out of
tune. (they do, but you don't get another job!)
g I think that a very big contributing factor  to the long life is the way I
blow and the way I attack notes.  But the polishing has had a definite effect.
Reason for thinking this is as follows 
I was given a Silver Concerto by Hohner in the mid 60s which had similar reeds.
I didn't touch the reeds and they went out of tune in about a year of sporadic
playing (didn't like it anyway).  I tried the Meisterklasse chromatic (GREAT
range, shame about the sound) and the same thing occured (shorter reeds
however).  I have been using an Amadeus for some practise in the last couple of
years 'cos it is an easy instrument to play, my 'Strad' or 'Tate' (whichever you
prefer) is quite difficult to get the best out of, it requires technique to make
it sound..  The Amadeus has also driffted out of tune.  No I have not polished
reeds on any of these three instruments.

If you would like to invite me over to the States I will be only too pleased to
demonstrate!!

I hope that this is of some use to you Rick, please ask away either publically
or privately.  I have to say that, anything that passes between us which could
be of interest to the List should be public.

Best wishes

Douglas Tate     Hey, all this writing is eating into my playing time!