[Harp-L] RE: Gapping query for XB-40

["Rick Epping" <REpping@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Winslow,

Thank you for your message.  The XB-40's auxiliary reeds seem to respond
best with little or no curvature and with an offset that is nearly but
not quite zero.  If an auxiliary reed rests too far down into the slot
it can be somewhat intractable and hesitant in bending.  If it has too
high an offset the bend may have a breathy hesitancy similar to that of
a standard Richter with too much reed offset.  

Richard describes his auxiliary reeds as being "decidedly gapped".  This
would indicate to me that their gaps are too high, since the optimal gap
should be hardly noticeable.  


Best regards, 

Rick Epping
Hohner, Inc.
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Winslow Yerxa [mailto:winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 2:18 PM
> To: Rick Epping
> Subject: Gapping query for XB-40
> 
> Rick -
> 
> From a recent harp-l discussion:
> 
> >I found the low end of the instrument to be a bit breathier and less
> >focused than a standard G >harp.
> >
> >
> >Regards, Richard Hunter
> >
> >I found exactly the same thing with my G XB40. To my surprise, I
found
> >that the so-called "zero offset" auxiliary reeds at the low end do
not
> >in fact have a zero offset. They are decidedly gapped on my specimen.
> >Is this intentional, or is it poor quality control resulting in that
> >breathiness?
> >
> >Steve Shaw
> 
> This made me wonder if the seeming bending intractability of some of
> the lowest notes might be ameliorated by changing offset of the
> responder reeds. Is the gapping described by Steve standard, and if
so,
> what might be the rationale?
> 
> This might be worth publically addressing on harp-l.
> 
> Winslow