[Harp-L] reed going flat when played hard

[Captron100@xxxxxxx]

I have 2 problems and would appreciate input.  I'm trying to save one  of my 
harps that was a good harp -- till yesterday.
 I just embossed (with a socket and glasscutter) and gapped a Lee  Oskar Db 
harp that wasn't playing to my satisfaction.  I slipped  with the glass cutter 
and ruined the 6 hole blow reed.  So I replaced  it with a reed from a Hohner 
SP20, which turns out to be short, despite my  checking the slot measurements 
shown on Pat Missin's site.  The info  for short slotted harps indicates that 
the SP20 reed is both longer and  wider. Is a LO key of Db a long slot?  One 
other  possibility is that LO rivets are larger in diameter than Hohner rivets 
and i  had to open the hole in the Hohner reed to get the rivet in. It pretty 
much goes  without saying that this hole now plays badly.  Comments and  
suggestions?
  Something I did has affected the tunings, esp. in my 7  hole blow.  It went 
drastically sharp so I tuned it down so that  it's more in the ballpark.  But 
now this reed goes way sharp the harder I  blow.  I've never before 
experienced such a drastic variation caused by  volume of breath.  Comments and 
suggestions?
ron



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