Re: [Harp-L] sp-20`s, MS, etc.

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I appreciate that people don't like to have to mess with their instruments, whatever brand they prefer.  However, it's a rare instrument -- and I'm talking now about anything you can bang, blow into, strike, strum, or finger -- that doesn't need some initial and ongoing setup work to play brilliantly.  Ask a guitarist what he or she has to do to make the thing play right according to his or her tastes -- it's generally non-trivial.

I very rarely buy a Lee Oskar that doesn't play well out of the box and last for a very long time.  However, any harp I buy plays noticeably better once I've 1) dragged a penny sidewise down the reed slots to "emboss" the slots and 2) set the gaps on the reeds.  These two steps produce a louder, more responsive instrument, just about every time, and they take no more than 5-10 minutes of my time.   

Where gapping is concerned, the mistake most people, including myself, typically make is to open the gaps up too wide.  That practice produces a leaky, unresponsive instrument, and a player who needs the gaps set very high also is probably playing too hard in general.  Set the gaps low to start -- to where you can just see daylight between the tip of the reed and the edge of the slot -- and open it up from there, until you're happy with the response of the reed.  This approach also makes the instrument easier to overblow, in case you're into that kind of thing. 

If you're happy with your harps out of the box, that's great.  Whether you're happy with the thing out of the box or not, a little time spent on setup makes for an instrument that's a lot more fun to play.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com