[Harp-L] Fatigue and SS reeds

[Snaruhn@xxxxxxx]

Hi, list "reeders",
 
this thread can surely compete with the materials question in 97/98 because  
it
concerns the weakest point of the harp, the reeds, though there are  
differences.
 
During the materials debate Vern, me and some others defended their view  
point 
that the shape makes the music. By sound experiments of harps with  combs of
different materials Vern proved that in an impressive way.  Moreover, I added 
a
CX 12 with a brass shell to the test but the audience wasn´t able  to notice a
sound difference to the plastic original.  
 
Here the discussion deals with the question whether brass is the  proper 
material
for reeds because they often times crack. However, the circumstances  of reed
fatigue have to be considered.
 
A harmonica is a sensitive instrument and has to be handled very  carefully.
Reed fatigue is almost exclusively the consequence of the way how the harp  is
played. Of course, John Popper needs up to 6 diatonics every night in  the way
he maltreats them. A blues harper who constantly tries to bend the  notes 
below the melting point mustn`t wonder when someday he may inhal reed 
fragments.
 
Franz Chmel told me that he kills some 5 - 8 reeds per week and he´s a  pure
chromaticist.
 
Therefore, I understand why Vern looked for the steel alternative though  
it´s a
cumbersome work to cut SS reeds.
 
In this connection "Crazy Bob" mentioned a well-known fact:


< Simply put, if a manufacturer makes a "perfect" harmonica 
< (in  the sense that it never fails), then it may be financial suicide to 
produce such  a 
< harmonica, if current product sales as well as future sales of the  new 
product will 
< eventually dry up because no one needs a replacement  harmonica. >
 
Surely, but because nobody and nothing is perfect a factory hardly will  
commit
suicide in this way. Only let´s take the best known harp  factory.
 
Years ago Hohner tried to fit out it´s most expensive harp, the Silver  
Concerto, with
appropriate reeds. Instead of the usual brass, reeds of bronze were  choosen 
but it
didn`t work. Though harder than brass, bronze is too brittle =  more reed 
failures.       

Because this thread will stay in the headlines, a temporary last  idea.

Vern, in answering Joe you wrote:
 
< .................You could add thickness near the rivet 
< which  would raise pitch.  Then you could add thickness at the tip to bring 
 
< >pitch back down to the starting point.  That would result in a  thicker 
reed 
<  overall..........>          
 
respectively, you typed: 
 
< ...... You would have an overall thinner reed >
 
I think that you didn`t mean that the reed is thicker or thinner  OVERALL 
when the  
rivet or tip area only is worked, didn`t you?
 
Siegfried