[Harp-L] Cleaning Spit vs adjusting reeds

[Richard Sleigh]

Hi  Leonard,

Sounds to me like the offending reeds may be a bit too close to the reed plate. 

If you check them visually without cover plates, the reeds that are not sticking probably are a bit higher

If you have never adjusted reeds, try playing around with a beater harp to get an idea of how to do it without wrecking reeds. Push blow reeds GENTLY with a toothpick till you find the pressure point that re-sets the spring - draw reeds, same general idea but you are lifting them with a knife blade

Richard Sleigh
PO Box 23
Boalsburg PA 16827

rrsleigh at xxxxx
http://hotrodharmonicas.com
http://rsleigh.com





Message: 8
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2016 17:00:10 -0400
From: "Leonard Schwartzberg" <leonard1 at xxxxx>
To: <harp-l at xxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Question on light cleaning of "spit" from harmonica
Message-ID: <008c01d21f4b$76e7d9c0$64b78d40$@net>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Hello fellow Harpers:   I play a Seydel Blues Session Steel harmonica(s).
I'm a beginner/intermediate level player.   Seems like, very often, even
after merely stepping away from the harmonica for an hour or so, several of
the notes (i.e. 3 draw, 4 draw, 5 draw) are totally stuck, and I've got to
hit the harp hard on my leg, or blow/draw really, really hard to get the
note(s) to play.   I think that spit gets in there and quickly jams the
reed(s).   Without opening the harp, can I merely run the whole harmonica
under some room temperature water and clean it out?   Or is there some other
way to easily keep my harp playing?   Thanks for the help.   Leonard