[Harp-L] M.S. Series reed plate thickness conundrum

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi again, Folks,

 

I've been kicking around something about reed-plate thickness and I'd like
to hear what you expert harp tweakers have to say about it.  So here goes.

 

My understanding of the sound dynamics of the harmonica, limited as it might
be, tells me that a thicker reed plate makes for a louder sounding harp.  I
also understand, correctly or incorrectly, that the reed plate's vibration
is what produces most -if not all - of the harmonica's sound.  So wouldn't
it follow that the thicker the plate the more wind energy it will require to
produce a sound (albeit a louder one)? 

 

This seems to play out with my Blues Harps and with my Herring Vintage
harps.  They're louder, for sure, but they take more wind energy to play,
more of an initial force of breath.  Although I like these harps a lot I'm
trying to play as gently as I can these days and get away from the full
force, blow as hard as I can, style of playing I've done ever since I
learned to play; it just wears me and my harps out too much. 

 

I have 4 blues harps and 3 of the Herring Vintage harps and I want to use
them but when I'm on the low holes and want to pull at real low wind
pressure and get a good laughing vibrato going it's much more difficult than
with my Special 20s which seem to work well with low pressure playing.

 

What I getting at ultimately here is this:  No amount of embossing or
gapping will change the harps with the thicker reed plates because it is
going to take more initial force to start the reed sounding.  Am I right?
It seems like you trade off a lot for that little bit of extra volume.  

 

As an aside to the above stuff I have to say that embossing the Herrings is
a real bitch. The brass in those plates seems a lot harder than the brass in
the Honer plates.  Maybe there are things I can do gapping-wise on these
thicker reed plates that I'm not aware of.

 

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh