RE: [Harp-L] Seydel Repair Options

[Steve Shaw <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

I'm up to me neck with this, that and the other at the moment but I just want to thank the wonderful, unseen people who have replied to me offlist about my Session Steel issue, all with really useful hints and tips. Much appreciated. Not to speak of the useful responses that we can all read on-list. My harmonica life is a never-ending learning curve and I take on advice like a sponge soaking up water. 
Having said that, I must say that this reed-polishing malarkey is a totally new notion with me. Now not for one second would I deny that polishing reeds might be beneficial in ways I'll never understand to the playing of the harp.  After all, I've discovered the benefits of other tweaks such as minimising the reed/slot clearance. But polishing *leading to longer life*? Sorry, chaps, but I want some science here. Polishing makes reeds thinner and makes them require invasive retuning to a degree that would not be necessary with unpolished reeds. You buy a stock harmonica, you polish the reeds (invasive) meaning you have to do more tuning than would otherwise be the case - on thinned reeds (invasive). And you're telling me that this makes reeds last longer. Well I don't believe you. I want statistics, please, with big sample numbers, not just subjective impressions, because what you appear to be telling me makes no sense. 
Incidentally, on the infrequent occasions I have a reed go south on me, I invariably find that it's failed about a third the way up from the rivet. Any tuning I do to lower pitch is done nearer the rivet than that. My feeling is that fine-tuning a reed, unless done incredibly clumsily, will not usually be the cause of early failure. No science there, just a hunch based on experience!

 

> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Seydel Repair Options
> From: jevern@xxxxxxx
> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:12:05 -0800
> To: 3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx
> CC: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> 
> > Your conclusion is true but I disagree with the reason that you give: "This is because people have a tendency to..once they have reached the lowest level they need to remove the scratches, will tend to ease off the rest of the length.
> 
> 
> An amount of thickness removed from the part of the reed that bends near the rivet will lower the pitch much more than the same amount removed at the tip will raise the pitch.  That is because the stiffness near the rivet is related to the third power of thickness and the mass of the tip is related to the first power of thickness.
> 
> There is no reason to polish near the tip because reeds don't bend or crack there.
> 
> Vern
> 
> 
> On Nov 11, 2013, at 2:06 PM, Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > In a word ...yes. Most of the scratches are at the roots of the reeds. About the 30% mark. Once you polish those out, the root is thinner and the pitch will have gone DOWN. So Mr. Jones' method has high credibility.  Even if you polish the full length of the reed, the pitch will STILL go down. This is because people have a tendency to..once they have reached the lowest level they need to remove the scratches, will tend to ease off the rest of the length. At least that was my experience. 
> > 
> > smo-joe
> > 
> > On Nov 11, 2013, at 12:47 PM, Vern wrote:
> > 
> >> 
> >> On Nov 10, 2013, at 9:59 PM, Greg Jones <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> 
> >>> 
> >>> …..Either way, I feel safe saying it does not shorten reed life and since I charge the same whether the reed is polished or unpolished, it is not a pricey gamble but rather a no lose transaction for the customer…...
> >>> 
> >> Like chicken soup…it couldn't hurt. 
> >> 
> >> Does polishing change the pitch?
> >> 
> >> Vern