[Harp-L] XB emergency fix story.

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Last night before my regular Thursday gig, I was checking one of my precious XBs (the C) The active blow 10 reed was playing bent without any help from me, and when I looked at it, I saw the last couple of mills. were bent up, and there was a visible crack in the tip as well. 
Never having changes a reed on an XB, I held my breath and centre-punched it out. I then looked round for a replacement, which had to be narrower than a Spec. 20 reed or a few other plates I picked up.  Finally punched one off an old nailed Blues Harp plate. It was about 8mm too long, and I made a rough judgement (this was about an hour before gig time) and snipped off the offending mills. with the kitchen scissors. I few passes with a file, and I pushed the reed complete with its old rivet into the XB plate & centred it. Guess what? The damn thing was perfectly in tune. I took it to the gig and used it a fair bit, mashing down on blow ten just to be sure. Are my stars aligned or what!?
RD