Re: [Harp-L] Tuning

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Colin Fulton wrote:
> I am wodering how much you can retune a reed with both methods used
> (scraping off material and adding solder), can you get half steps,
> whole steps or greater?

It's really hard to answer question like this without some context. 
Low reeds have a lot more material that can be removed in order to
alter the pitch, while high reeds are smaller and thinner.  It's
generally no problem to change a reed by a wholetone in pitch, but on
high-pitched reeds even a semitone might be a problem.  

If you're, say, raising the pitch of a low, weighted reed -- say the
one blow on a low F -- there's an awful lot of material that you can
scrape away.  If you're trying raise the pitch of a small, high reed
-- say the 10 blow on a regular F -- you need to be really careful not
to file/sand/scrape right through the reed.  

-tim