Hello everyone - been a long time lurker, but I'm finally crawling out of the shadows...
Anyway I was interested in this discussion and I had to chime in. I'm speaking from personal experience here. I have a Seydel Low G. When it was new it played perfectly and I (still) love both the quality of the harp and the lush low tone, but after putting it away for a week or so I noticed a strange phenomenon I'd never experienced with any other harp in all my years of playing - both reeds in the 1 hole sounding simultaneously. After a little while of gentle playing it corrected itself. Another time the harp had been put away for a couple of weeks whilst I was on holiday, when it next came out of the box the 1 blow didn't sound at all - the gap had completely closed. A little gently adjustment and everything was fine, until next time the harp came out, when I had to adjust it all over again. I guess this puts unnecessary strain on the reed and I expect its life expectancy to be shorter than a standard register harp.
I'm sorry if it doesn't fit your theoretical expectations Ken, but it is a very real phenomenon, the weighted reeds and gravity work to close the gap if the harp is stored in the wrong plane for too long.
Jim
On 25 May 2007, at 20:12, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken Hildebrand" <airmojoken@xxxxxxxxx> To: <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Vern Smith" <jevern@xxxxxxx>; <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 10:39 AM Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Range (Seydel Super Low Harps)
Here's the link to the Seydel website that has the warnings (Important!):
http://www.seydel1847.de/epages/Seydel.sf/en_GB/? ObjectID=11717&Locale=en_GB
You are correct that they say that the reeds can sag. I would like to talk
to whomever wrote that statement.
Just because they say it doesn't mean that it is correct. Metal reeds just
do not behave that way.
Vern