Re: [Harp-L] customizing Lee Oskars

[fjm <bad_hat@xxxxxxxx>]

Michael King said;

> One HUGE problem with the LOs is the reeds are brittle.

Wow! not my experience at all.  I once foolishly used discarded 
reedplates from a couple of lower pitched Lee Oskar harmonicas to create 
a low A harmonica.  I had never retuned that low before.  I repitched 20 
reeds, many of them using solder in large amounts.  Remember I was using 
 used plates.  I broke one reed out of the 20.  I really manipulated 
the reeds to an extreme.  Getting something that low to play reasonably 
took a lot of adjustment.  The reed that broke was on its way out before 
I touched it.  I think it may have been a 4 blow.  Anyhow that was over 
a decade ago.  The harmonica still plays quite well and I haven't had 
any reed failures.  My initial manipulations of the reeds were inept and 
the harmonica survived it.

On another occasion I had traveled out of town to a Lee Oskar workshop. 
 If I recall correctly we were asked to bring along a D harmonica. 
Being cheap I brough an older much played harmonica.  We retuned  the 
harmonicas to the tuning Ben Bouman showcased on a youtube video 
recently.  3 of the reeds drop significantly in pitch.  I did this 
without solder plus my initial attempt went awry when I accidentally 
tuned the reed next to the reed I was trying to lower.  I kept scraping 
then sounding it and the pitch wasn't changing at all.  By the time I 
realised my mistake I'd dropped the wrong reed almost a whole tone.  I 
retuned it back to where it was supposed to be.  That harmonica is well 
over a decade old.  It too was severly abused by my efforts.  It started 
out used and I regapped the retuned reeds after having dropped some of 
them well over a whole tone in pitch.  It still plays fine today.  So I 
guess your mileage may vary applies here.  fjm