[Harp-L] 1) Mark Graham 2) Overhauling the kit

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

1)  I heard an album of bluegrass covers of Bob Dylan tunes by Tim O'Brien yesterday.  One cut -- the best on the CD, in my opinion -- featured Mark Graham, who I understand is Nashville-based, blowing what sounded like 1st position diatonic.  It was terrific harp playing, brilliant use of dynamics, vibrato, and other tonal effects.  I look forward to hearing more from this player.

2)  I began overhauling my diatonic harp kit yesterday.  The overhaul consists of the following steps:
- disassembling the harp
- soaking the reed plates and cover plates in lemon juice
- removing micropore tape gaskets, if any, from the comb and cleaning the comb
- rinsing and drying the plates and covers
- "embossing" the reed slots by dragging a penny lengthwise down the slots once or twice for each slot
- re-assembling the harp and adjusting tuning and gapping as necessary

This is the first time I've tried embossing the reed slots, and I was surprised at how much of a difference it made in the responsiveness of some of my instruments, even Lee Oskars, which are pretty airtight from the factory.  I had one or two reeds that buzzed a little after embossing; playing the reeds with a little force once or twice made the problem go away.

Note also that I have now officially joined the I-don't-use-micropore-tape crowd.  I plan to add comments to that effect to the page on microporing at my website soon.  

Where did I learn to clean reedplates with lemon juice and emboss reed slots with a penny?  Right here on Harp-L, of course.

Happy Holidays and Regards,
Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com