Re: [Harp-L] Gapping/Embossing, am I doing it right?...long.

["Vern Smith" <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Hunter" <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>; <jevern@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 6:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Gapping/Embossing, am I doing it right?...long.


> .....opening up the back of the reed plates...

That is a new phrase to me. Would you explain?

> Vern, we are talking here about proprietary intellectual property -- the 
> very stuff that makes the Guild's products unique and valuable.  Asking 
> the Guild to give that away is liking asking Coca-Cola corporation to give 
> away the formula for Coke.

I do not question anyone's right to control their intellectual property nor 
the fact that a fast, effective, and painstakingly-developed proceedure is 
intellectual property.   Many times, secrecy is more effective protection 
than patents and trademarks.

My interest is not in stealing secrets, it is understanding the acoustics 
and aerodynamics of reeds (including gapping) and in sharing that knowledge.

>  Frankly, it's unclear to me from Greg Hommert's questions what his 
> intentions are -- they could easily be to set himself up in competition to 
> Messrs. Sleigh, Gordon, Filisko, etc. Whether that's the case or not, the 
> people who have spent thousands of hours mastering unique techniques are 
> under no obligation to make the fruits of their efforts available to 
> others for free.

I agree.  I was considering the subject from the point of view of a beginner 
(like me) trying to learn how to gap his own harps.  Secrecy isn't much help 
to him. Besides that, harp-l is about sharing solutions, not keeping them 
secret.

> I have also been present at more than one seminar where Sleigh and Filisko 
> have answered questions about their techniques and findings related to 
> harmonica enhancement in some detail -- at the level of principles at 
> least, if not down to the level of tooling and tolerances. In other words, 
> I think it's  to say that these masters have been more than reasonably 
> generous  with their knowledge.

I have not been present at every seminar and I applaud any information that 
they have presented.  I had in mind a general situation and not any 
individual technicians.  If my livelyhood depended on profit from voicing 
reeds, I would no doubt have a somewhat different point of view. Of all the 
technician's skills, reed voicing/gapping is, IMO, the least well 
documented.

Thank you for your comments.

Vern
Visit my harmonica website www.Hands-Free-Chromatic.7p.com