Re: [Harp-L] Replaceable Reeds

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I use a brass 10BA cheeshead bolt Joe. (That was thanks to advice from
fellow Ozlander Lawrie Minson)  I've replaced heaps of reeds, and I've
only stripped the thread  (in the plate) once or twice. 
I have a supply of nuts I bought years ago, but never use them, except
in the aforementioned couple of cases. 
The 10BA is a pretty fine thread, so I reckon that's why I probably get
enough turns.
This grade of bolt is getting a bit hard to find these days, though,
and the only other problem I've had is that they are thicker than the
rivet, so I have to open the hole in the reed a little. 
If this goes off centre at all, it makes the reed hard to centre. 
I've thought of going to 8BA or something else smaller, but it seems
with approaching old age and accompanying deterioration of eye-bones,
what I really need is a half inch Whitworth.
RD

>>> joe leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx> 22/10/2010 16:35 >>>

On Oct 21, 2010, at 11:28 PM, Rick Dempster wrote:

> Why wouldn't they have just tapped the reed plate? (which is what i
do
> for reed replacement. A lot easier than fiddling around with a nut. 

> Any
> practical reason, apart, perhaps from reducing labour?

> RD

When we talked about this Rick the conclusion was that there are only 

so many turns of thread that can be cut into a 'relatively' thin reed 

plate and with the nut system you had more turns. That AND the  
possibility of wrecking the tap job in a reed plate IS a problem  
(usually necessitating a larger mach screw), whereas stripping a nut  
is quite hard to do. Reducing labor was never an issue, as it is  
actually more labor intensive (and expensive...due to the nuts) to do 

the 'stud pin-receiver nut' system. We were looking for the BEST
system.

smo-joe

>
>>>> Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> 22/10/2010 13:51 >>>
> Farrell had Hohner Toots Hard Boppers with 00-90 screw posts
instaljed
> in the reedplates where the rivets had been. This allowed the user
to
> replace a reed by unscrewing a nut, popping the replacement reed on 

> the
> screw post (though the holes in the reed pad needed to be enlarged  
> a bit
> with a rat tail file), and tightening the nut again. You had to do  
> a bit
> of centering of the reed, and gapping and fine tuning are pretty
much
> always required, but the actual reed replacement was pretty quick.
> Winslow
>
> Winslow Yerxa
> Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
> Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
> Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
> Columnist, harmonicasessions.com
>
> --- On Thu, 10/21/10, gnarlyheman@xxxxxxxxx <gnarlyheman@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> From: gnarlyheman@xxxxxxxxx <gnarlyheman@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Replaceable Reeds
> To: "Joe Leone" <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>, pneupco2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> Cc: "Harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Thursday, October 21, 2010, 5:03 PM
>
> Did Farrell have harmonicas with replaceable reeds?
> Sent on the Sprint Now Network from my BlackBerryÂ
>
>
>
>
>