Re: [Harp-L] Reed design question.

[Zombor Kovacs <zrkovacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

I don't think they are standardized. For example a Hohner Marine band high reed will be too narrow in a Hering, or vica versa, a Hering high reed will not fit into a Hohner Marine band, or even into a Seydel solist. There are differences in the width. The only thing that seems to be standard is that the upper 4 reedslots are narrower, the lower 6 are wider. The lower 6 seems to be a standard width but only if we are talking about diatonics. Chromatics seem to have different widths again although they look the same to the naked eye. We are talking about 100th of a millimiter differences. If you measure reed widths for different diatonics and chromatics, you will find quite a few differences both regarding width, thickness and of course length (but lenght is ment to be different anyway).
 
Zombor
 
 


________________________________
From: David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Harp L Harp L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 12:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Reed design question.

They are mostly the same. These standardized reedslot dimensions have been standardized for a long time.  You see them on Hohners, Seydels, anything you can imagine. It seems that somebody came up with these very early in the harmonica's development, just like Richter tuning was. Seydel using this reedslot now where all reedslots are the same width basically. That's also a very old design. I have first hand experience that they were using this wider slot for the higher reeds at the very beginning of the 20th century, but they were also using a narrower one right up until about three years ago... I think the narrower slot might still be used on the Solist Pro 12. Most people can tell no difference, some can tell a little. For the most part, it all works, and even these are very minor differences between the slot sizes.  But this standardized slot idea was standardized before our great great grandparents were born.
 ________________________________________________________
David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com


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On Apr 20, 2012, at 12:39 AM, Zombor Kovacs wrote:

> I am wondering what is the point making high pitched reeds narrower. I understand that if you increase the circumference at the same length it will increase flow cross section area, but at high pitched reeds much less air passes through anyway. While you can blow your lungs into a low reed, you can only blow a fraction into a high reed which - according to me - is not that comfortable. Why is it a good idea to reduce air quantity for high holes even more when it should actually be increased?
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> Another thing  what I experienced is response, which I put in relation with material properties. Sometimes I replace reeds for thicker reeds without knowing it. I only see it is the same length, so it will be fine. But what happens before I start tuning it is that suddenly the replaced reed has a much higher pitch than I expected and I have to put a lot of solder on it. Then after tuning it will have the right pitch but it will sound flat and unresponsive. My feeling is that it is the hysteresis what you get between a loading and unloading cycle. If you have a thick reed the thicker it is the more it will behave like a plastic material, which means that there will be a loss of energy inside the reed material. I don't know if anybody can confirm this theory. 
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