Re: [Harp-L] Special 20 mods

[Michael King <king.michaelt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mike,

I also recommend Richard Sleigh's material to you; his book, but also
YouTube videos, and nuggets from his website.

I can promise you amazement at the increase of responsiveness you can
achieve quickly without embossing slots or needing tools, other than what
you gap reeds with and need to disassemble/assemble your instrument. If
your style of play doesn't require further tighter control and delicacy,
you may never emboss your harp.

Embossing, in my limited experience, can be a step backwards if a performer
is (struggling for words, here) is robust and vigorous in their playing -
likes to play the harp really hard. Extra care needs to be taken to keep
the harp free of mouth debris, mucous and such, and dry them immediately
and well after use.

The customization one absolutely incredible world-class musician, at the
time I met him a few years ago, was pretty much just gapping the reeds for
his style of play. He played the diatonic harp chromatically, was very
dynamic, all without embossing, psuedo-annealing, carving grooves in the
plate, etc. I guess the "long-winded" point is, you  can probably
accomplish your responsiveness goals fairly easily and quickly to your
satisfaction without buying additional equipment.

So, let Richard's book and multi-media material help you with fitting your
reeds and guide your gapping. If you want to tune your harp, Mr. Sleigh's
book gives you the info you need and he has bundled essential tools you can
purchase with reed tools sized for Hohner reeds. Please shoot us an email
with your experience.


-Michael

On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 1:59 AM, Mike Best <mike.best@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I find the concept of harp modifications fascinating, and I especially
> like the idea of mods which can make my harps more responsive.  I hate it
> when I buy a new harp and it comes out of the box all "mushy".  Sometimes I
> can improve it by pushing the offending reeds closer to the reed plate, but
> it's a pretty hit-and-miss process.
>
> Rather than trawling through the internet picking up tips here and there,
> can anyone point me towards an article or site which covers such mysterious
> things as gapping and embossing?  I play Special 20's exclusively if that's
> any help
>
> On the subject of Special 20 mods, I've heard that people squash in the
> back edges of the cover plates which has the effect of opening up the back
> of the harp and "letting more sound out", thereby making a louder harp.
>  But having a louder harp would mean that I wouldn't need to turn my amp up
> so much, and my '59 Bassman RI doesn't sound any good unless it is cranked
> up to about 6 or so (and that's with low gain preamp tubes).  So maybe this
> mod isn't such a good idea after all?  I would be interested in hearing
> others thoughts on this.
>
> I would love to deal directly with a custom harp modifier but I don't know
> of any here in Australia!
>
> Cheers
> Mike
>
>
>