[Harp-L] how much can a note be bent

["sam Blancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a Golden Melody that I retuned to a blues tuning I learned about on
this list that Carlos Del Junco uses on ?B-Thing?.  I got the tuning layout
from Overblow.com?s ?Scale Finder Page? ? a very useful tool, I?m finding
out these days.

Anyway, this tuning (Blues Tuning variation 11.21b from Lee Oskar) has in
the #1 hole, D blow and A draw which is a pretty wide spread -3 ½ steps.  I
can bend the A draw down to Eb which is 3 steps but it?s very unstable.
When you get down to Eb, you start to get low pitched squeals.  Even on the
recording I have of Del Junco playing ?B Thing? he gets them.  But it still
sounds cool to get that deep a bend.  I?m guessing this is about the limit.
But there is the issue of how I dropped the reed down ? solder.  Maybe if a
more stable reed were put in place of the existing F# reed ? like an A reed
that you didn?t have to weight ? then maybe you could get it to be more
stable.

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh