Re: HELP! - crash course in reed tuning needed!

[hippo@xxxxxxxxxx (Hugh Messenger)]

At 11:00 9/23/94 -0400, Shankar Subramaniam wrote:
>Hi
>I need some help in tuning a dead(flat) reed.
>I was playing my heart out on my Marine Band ( key of D )
>and suddenly this morning I realized that the 4 Draw
>was way flat = almost a 4 Blow. I desperately need this
>harp for my first gig on Tuesday. I am reluctant to buy
>a new one since I don't really have time to break it in.

If it suddenly dropped by almost a tone then the reed is almost certainly
fractured rather than just out of tune.  Try this ...

Whip the cover plates off.  Grab some flexible, flat 'thing' - I keep a set
of feeler gauges in my harp case for reed work, but a bit of thinish
cardboard (business card) will do.  Insert under tip of reed and gently
bend up (maybe a quarter inch or so) and release it.  A non-fractured reed
will live with this treatment and will 'ring' when you release it.  A
fractured reed will either break or 'plunk' when you do this.

If you think the reed is not fractured ...

Place the thin flat thingie all the way underneath the reed.  Use a
scraping implement of some sort (hobby knife or penknife does good) and
gently scrape the free swinging end of the reed - use gentle strokes, along
the reed, in one direction (towards the free swinging end).  Don't guage or
score the reed - just scrape gently.  The flat thing under the reed is just
there to give some support.  You should only be scraping metal from the tip
of the reed - maybe the last 1/8".

After every few scrapes, try the note and see if it is sounding more or
less in tune.  Keep going till you get it in tune.


With regards to 'breaking in' a harp.  Some say you have to, some say you
don't.  I don't think you do.  I regularly end up buying a new harp the
afternoon of a gig and only play it for a few minutes before we start.  I
always set up the reed gaps to suite me though, so this may be why I don't
need a playing in period.  I also don't use many wooden bodied harps, which
may need running in.  Let me know if you need info on how to 'gap' a harp.

>Shankar.

   -- hugh