Re: [Harp-L] Choking the reeds -- harmful?

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----
From: Vern Smith <jevern@xxxxxxx>
OK folks......there is my argument.  Have at it with your counter-arguments
and comments while I cringe behind my monitor.  ;o)

Vern



Hey Vern,

The theory makes sense. I'm not sure we have many answers yet, so I keep an open mind and find it fascinating that we can put a man on the moon, could have put a man on Mars in the 1970s had we wanted to, but the harmonica innards yet hold many secrets... The only thing I have to go on is experience... which reeds tend to blow out, whether for me or for customers. 9 blow is very common for guys who wail on that note. It's a wailer, yet, it is only a step above the draw reed.  The bend stress of the 9 blow should actually be on the 9 draw, right? But the harps I"ve experience with, the 9 draws hardly ever go out and it is instead the 9 draw that goes out. 
Go down to the lower octaves, it's a different story. 4 blow is the bigger down there, sometimes three. Sometimes six. It seems to be nearly always the reeds in the bend holes that go out... usually the blow reeds in those holes. When I quit bending so hard, the reeds started lasting me much longer. There could be another variable in there, I don't know.

I'll be reading with baited breath myself.

By the way, when I was a kid, I had a ferret named Vern. We got him not long after Ernest Goes to Camp came out.

Dave
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Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com 
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