FW: [Harp-L] New process for treating reeds and question for Dave Payne

[harmoniman@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Dave,
As a Marine Band player for 40 + years who always had trouble with D 4 hole draws going flat I thank you for that information.  I notice that you are a distributor for Seydel. Let me ask you this.... When the Berlin Wall fell and Seydel became available in the States, my friends and I all rushed out to buy  them .  It was nice to have an alternative to Hohner that had a sealed comb and bolt down cover plates and was less expensive,too! Our joy was diminished as  we noticed that the cover plates were flimsy and we all proceded to blow out the reeds in a short period of time  . I see that there are a lot of Seydel players on Harp-l. Has the quality and durability improved ? Thanks, Jim 
-------------- Forwarded Message: -------------- 
From: David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: Harp L Harp L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Subject: [Harp-L] New process for treating reeds 
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:34:34 +0000 

...... 
Harmonica reeds are certainly under less stress than the brass in a rifle shell. 
So, I got to thinking, what if I applied that process to harmonicas? Harmonica 
reeds have inherent metal stress in them from the factory. I thought that if I 
could relieve that stress in the metal, the reeds would maybe last longer... and 
I prefer - probably since I was a Marine Band player for 25 years - narrow, 
brass reeds. ... just an observation. 

Here's the process, it's so simple to describe, I kind of feel like a jackass 
for having worked at it so long. Time will tell if I can repeat these results 
over time... 

Take two reedplates 500 degrees in the oven for one hour, cool at room 
temperature. 


Dave