Re: [Harp-L] long slot short slot -- was: Suzuki Firebreath ReedUpdate

["John Kerkhoven" <solo_danswer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Super. Thanks Fernando.

One more mystery solved!

John


> Hi John,
>
> there are some parameters that define the frequency of a reed. The most
> obvious of all is the length. The second most important one is the profile
> of the reed. The profile is the shape that the milling process gives to
the
> reed. The weights at the tip of the reeds are one of the characteristics
of
> the profile. The profile defines how the thickness of the brass is
> distributed over the length of the reed. This distribution is subtle
enough
> not to be easily spotted by sight, but it is there and it decisively
> differentiates the reed of hole five blow of a D harp from the reed of the
> five blow of a Eb harp, or even from the reed of the five draw of the same
D
> harp.
>
> Thus, for any reed length and frequency combination there is a specific
reed
> profile. That means that at Hohner, for instance, there are about 1500
> different drawers with 1500 different reeds which have to be managed so
that
> each slot in each harp in each key gets an optimized reed for that note.
>
> The retuning made at the factory corrects deviations around 30 cents, not
> more. More than that will not only be possibly negative to the reed's
> playability and longevity, it also will also cost too much time to be
> correctly tuned.
>
> All the best,
> Fernando
>