[Harp-L] Gap chart

[Vern]

I recently offered to send harp-l members my gap chart. My explanation may not have been clear about its use.

The chart can be used to MEASURE the gap of any .080” wide reed on either a diatonic or chromatic.  You will need to make a mental adjustment to use it for the narrow .070” wide reeds.  To use the chart. look at a real gap on the reed-plate and match it to one of the pictures ion the chart. 

I don’t believe that the old rule of making the gap equal to the thickness of the reed tip is a good one.  

The hole numbers on the chart are at the gaps found on a set of a dozen chromatic reed plates that played well.  I suspect that they would also work as a starting point for diatonic reeds.  A reed is a reed etc. IF the reed being adjusted has working neighbors, then more gap than the higher-pitched neighbor and less than the lower-pitched neighbor would be a good starting place.

You can make your own set of recommended gaps by measuring the gaps on some similar harps that work well for you.  A statistical median of the gaps on several similar reed plates  is recommended.

Vern