[Harp-L] Re: The beatings will continue untill tuning improves



Hi Wendell,
I had the pleasure a few years ago to work on one of William's harps. His Bb 270.
A harpl member bought it for him as a birthday gift and came into possession of it after his death.
I think he said he used it on the Tip of the Top lp.


Anyhow, I made a detail record of the tuning before working on the harp. Unfortunately it was lost when my last computer died.
Clarke did do some retuning of the harp to produce beating. From what I can recall he used a pin or other sharp object to scrape the front to middle edge of
the reed to sharpen it slightly. This was done to the 2nd octave so whether he played octaves with the 1st or 3rd octave he could produce the strong beat.
Granted you can produce beating by laying on one reed harder then the other but slightly retuning the reed(s) allows you to do it without as much effort and is
less stressful on the reeds.


When I tune chromes for my blues customers I ask them if they would like some beating ala William Clarke. In that instance I make sure the harp is in tune with itself then
slightly sharpen the 2nd octave by 2 or 3 cents. It isn't enough to put the harmonica out of tune when blowing single notes or chords but enough to create some beating without resorting to bending one of the reeds when playing octaves.


Mike


On Nov 25, 2009, at 9:45 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:


Message: 9
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:25:49 -0500
From: "Wendell Jenkins" <bacon-fat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] The beatings will continue untill tuning improves
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <003801ca6ddb$3093f9f0$0200a8c0@je2>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

I understand, when tuning a harmonica it's best to avoid beating of octaves.
But I really like the way William Clarke uses a beating effect in his stuff.
Is it the tuning, or the technique, bending one side of the octave ?

Michael Easton www.harmonicarepair.com






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