Re: [Harp-L] customizing Lee Oskars

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've never had either of the problems described below. I've adjusted LO reeds without any breakage problems, and the ones I've had out of the box have not had any problems with requiring too much wind.

I've only ever broken one reed while adjusting the gap, and that was a 1992-vintage Tombo Ultimo (Tombo does also make Lee Oskar harps) when I pressed too hard on the base of the reed. But never on any other harp, ever.

Leakiness can also be cause by misalignment of redplates to comb, and by insufficiently tightened screws. Given that in my experience LOs are gapped decently out of the box, I'd be inclined to suspect those causes.

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Sun, 8/30/09, Michael King <king.michaelt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Michael King <king.michaelt@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] customizing Lee Oskars
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, August 30, 2009, 5:19 PM

One HUGE problem with the LOs is the reeds are brittle. Out of the box the
reeds are too high. Any attempt to lower them causes the bleepin' things to
break. Without lowering the reeds, too much effort is required to sound a
reed - all you effort is blowing and drawing a lot of air (and sounding
breathy) and not playing.

I'd rather have most any cheap harp that you can work with than spend
another dime on a LO harp. Maybe I should become a marathon runner and then
reconsider the pulmonary requirements for playing one just be fair, but,
nah. Not in this lifetime.

Regards,

Michael
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