[Harp-L] Soaking plastic combs / Rick Epping's post on embossing



Thanks for your replies - i got a couple off list in addition to what appeared in the thread. After I jumped into the comb controversy I started to wonder if I was hearing things accurately, and this made me wonder if anyone else would get the results that I got when I dipped a plastic harp in water. Seems that they mostly do.

This is what the thread on soaking harps got me to thinking about:

I did not want to trust my own impressions after the comb debate made me question my ability to hear things accurately.

I think it makes the harp louder and also different sounding... but I wanted to know what others experience (or think they experience) before I posted my thoughts on what I believe is happening.

One of the things I learned that intrigues me is that I have been told that triangle players put a drop of water in the gap of the triangle - to improve the tone.... My impression is that the harp tone changes a bit as well as getting louder.

Plus the water will cling to the reeds , especially near the rivet end, by surface tension. So it will close up some of the gap and increase compression. Temporarily.

So there is more to soaking than making the comb swell. Maybe this has been covered before, but this aspect of the soaking discussion seemed to be missing. It is not a huge, life changing bit of information, but can be useful sometimes. The effect lasts long enough to get you through a solo, and if you have an underachieving plastic bodied harp, it would be a good thing to remember.

Great post on embossing, Rick. When I first learned about this, the term I was familiar with was burnishing. this naturally reminded me of a tool that I used as an art student that was called a burnishing tool. I used them on zinc and copper plate etchings and engravings to push down areas on the plate to make them hold less ink. So I dug out my old burnishing tool and that is what I used for quite a while until I learned other ways to emboss. You can find these tools in a good art supply shop or Dick Blick catalog. they look like a flattened rod that has been brought to a rounded tip, usually bent at the end a bit. Made of tempered steel, highly polished.

The chamfering photos are beautiful - your craftsmanship is truly inspiring!

Richard Sleigh

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