Subject: [Harp-L] Let's Review/ and Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Embossing Tools

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

The list owner writes:  "A quick trip to www.harp-l.org reveals a link  to 
the rules of harp-l. Tried and true and applied and interpreted by exactly 2  
people.  The list
owner, that's me and my trusted cohort and the admin  of this list, Ben."
 
....<vBG>-- and so true.  I'm one of those who immediately  forgets how and 
who to contact when faced with a problem  (most notably the recent inability 
just to get my Harp-l lists  via Aol!).  Both Fjm and Ben are remarkable people 
in their  equanimity in handling difficult situations.  We should all 
appreciate how  they deal with 1,000+ members' issues.  I can hardly manage my own!   
We Aol (I've decided it must stand for "Argue "O"ll you  like we're not 
Listening") subscribers are still not getting all of  our harp-l mail, so any 
responses/posts here might be a wee bit  disjointed.  I've realized one thing, 
though - I MISS reading the posts  here, no matter how technical.  Some day (soon I 
hope -thanks to the  archives), it'll all make sense to my befuddled brain 
.....and to that  end:
 
Joel Fritz (Barrelhouse Solly on the Web) writes (snipped) :
 
"It's a good metaphor, but springs don't have memory.  A spring has a  
combination of strength and toughness that allows it to be bent, compressed, 
or stretched a whole bunch without losing its original shape. Harmonica  
reeds 
are springs. Once a spring is bent into a new shape that it holds it has to  
be 
bent again to go back to the original shape. Reed gapping is bending the 
reed permanently.  Flattening the reeds before arcing and gapping may  make
 it easier to get the exact shape you want but the flattening step is  
bending the reed permanently too.  The flattening step may make the reed a  bit 
harder because bending a piece of metal without breaking it "stores"  additional 
stress
 in the metal that makes it resist being bent more than it did."
 
......I thought I'd made enough progress in my reading/learning curve to  open
 up my Steve"Moandabluz"Webb "tweaked"  C Sp.20 to "adjust"  the reeds.  Ha!  
I used only a toothpick to "gently" push up  and/or down on the reeds.  As SW 
later explained to me:  " it all  depends on what your interpretation of 
'gentle' is".    :-(  
 In my defence I'd no idea that awful blatting sound on the 2 draw was  ME 
actually bending all wrong until Joe Filisko put a name to it at his  Buckeye
 teach-in and Steve confirmed he'd thought so all along.  So now  I have to 
learn to "unbend" wrongly while relearning correctly (today  I think I might 
have finally achieved bending fairly consistently) 
....but one should never take apart a good harp while experiencing a  certain 
level of frustration with a "choked" note, is all I'm  saying.......<G>
 
Elizabeth