Re: [Harp-L] reed tuning questions



Hey Sam,

I really appreciate the input sloppy or not.  Thanks.

Doug H
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: sam Blancato 
  To: Harp-L 
  Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 7:54 AM
  Subject: [Harp-L] reed tuning questions


  I resent this post because the other one was sloppy:

  Doug asks:

  "1. How far up or down can I expect to easily tune a reed before I wreck
  it?"

  Others will disagree with me probably but I say 2 semitones, or a full step.
  Beyond that you are probably going to damage the reed unless you are
  EXTREMELY careful and you use a consistent method that's easily repeatable.
  Actually, I'd say a full step is pushing it.

  2. "I've heard that solder can be used to lower the pitch - is that required
  to
  get just 4 semitones?"

  Yes adding solder to weigh down the reed and then tuning back up to the
  pitch you want is the way to go; you can also remove material from near the
  base of the reed (the dog) but you are weakening the reed a lot and it won't
  last.  But soldering is not as easy as it sounds and you have to be careful
  about staying near the end of the reed and not letting it drip too far
  toward the middle.  And then there's the issue of cleaning up the sides
  after adding solder - it's a pain in the first place but 4 semitones is 2
  full steps - like from A down to F.  That's a lot; and so it means a LOT of
  solder.  I've tried it (Lee Oskar blues tuning 11.21b) and it worked but I
  was left with a very dull sounding reed.  It plays but it's much darker than
  the adjacent reeds.

  You need to replace the reed with one of the proper pitch, which may have a
  lot of solder, but done properly and cleaned up and pitched already.
  Better, I think, to develop your reed replacement skills.

  3. It would make sense for me to set up some kind of 'tuning station'. Best
  not
  to reinvent the wheel so any info or direction on this would be helpful."

  I've never done this on a large scale so I got nothin' on this one.  I'm
  interested in this because I want to do tunings on many different harps and
  I too want to learn to do this my self or I'm going to go broke just to get
  the harps I want.  But good luck.  I hope you're able to accomplish what you
  want.  Which is what, by the way?

  Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh

  _______________________________________________
  Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
  Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
  http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l


------------------------------------------------------------------------------



  No virus found in this incoming message.
  Checked by AVG - www.avg.com 
  Version: 9.0.717 / Virus Database: 270.14.115/2577 - Release Date: 12/20/09 00:35:00



This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.