[Harp-L] Brass Special 20 and Lee Oskars

[Chris Reynolds <c_reynolds2571@xxxxxxxxx>]

Over the last 6 months the only two harps that I've had inquiries about other than the ones that I've been doing are the Special 20 and the Lee Oskar. The reason that I hadn't done these two harps or combs in the past is due to the fact that they don't have a recess on the reed plates for the front of the cover plates to rest in. I had been told by others who had tried making standard style combs for the them that because of the lack of that slot they had a tendancy to bite the player. So today while I was working it dawned on me that the work around might be simpler than what I had originally attempted. Turns out that after working on them a while I had two new brass harps in my collection. The special 20 is straight forward, in fact it's no different than bolting in any of my other combs, the Lee Oskar however required a few minor alterations. The problems with the cover plates turned out to be a simple fix, basically the hole for the cover plate
 screws in the comb are slightly oversize allowing the cover plates to be pushed back from the front edge of the reed plates. Then using a tip I learned from Rupert Oysler I used put a piece of micropore tape on the inside of the coverplate and let it stick out. Once the cover plates are bolted on you simple trim the micropore even with the coverplates and it fills any tiny gap that might catch a mustache or lip. For the Lee Oskar the coverplate screw holes in the reedplates was enlarged with a #25 drill bit, this allowed the coverplates on that to be moved back from the front edge. The other modification I did on mine was to take a small file and even up the coverplate on the back of the harp. Since you have to move the coverplate back a tiny bit and the coverplates are the same size as the reedplates you end up with a tiny overhang in the back, so I evened this up a bit with a file. It's a very easy modification to do and takes very little time. I
 haven't added them to order page yet since I haven't had a chance yet to make any kind of production tooling, the ones that I did today I basically did as one off projects, having the special milling fixtures speeds up the process considerably and makes things more repeatable and accurate. And now I basically feel like I'm rambling so here are the links to a couple pictures...

http://www.builderofstuff.com/s20_oskar/new1.jpg
http://www.builderofstuff.com/s20_oskar/new2.jpg

http://www.builderofstuff.com/s20_oskar/new3.jpg http://www.builderofstuff.com/s20_oskar/new5.jpg

Also you'll notice on the back of the special 20 where I had a bit of a mishap, unfortunately the comb wasn't secured good enough and during part of the milling process it shifted and created a deeper cut. What a bummer. 

Chris 


http://www.blowyourbrassoff.com
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Just a man, his shop, and a long list of unfinished projects...