G Blues Harp trouble
Hi Winslow,
Watching many many u tube videos I would often hear Adam Gusso (and others) pick up a harp and say this one has a reed blown out or it has gone out of tune.
I was glad that didn't happen to me. Until it did.
I was working with my G blues Harp and all of a sudden hole 7 blow is a whole tone lower. I disassembled it thinking it was blocked or had debris on it. I plinked the reed and to my dismay it just lifted up and stayed. Oh no!!! So I gently pushed it back and it immediately travelled through the hole and stayed.
Oh oh. One more attempt to move the reed and it broke. Now I have duck tape covering the reed slot so it is playable.
Seems to me I have two options. Buy a new Harp, or buy a new reed plate.
Fixing the reed feels out of my range at this point.
i had been attempting blow bends and feel I may have stressed the reed perhaps ?
Or is this more common the I realize.
Thanks Winslow.
New harps are a fun fact of life too. After visiting my local music store and asking for a reed replacement, I was later informed none are available from their suppliers in Canada. This does surprise me as the Blues Harp is specifically designed to be modular as the MS label describes. Again though ordering direct from Hohner on the website makes the purchase with shipping more than a new harp.
So I'll go buy a new harp and have a spare G for the car.
Actually as I say that, l did leave my harps in the car accidently during the past deep freeze to minus 25 Celsius. Im going to assume that kind of temperature change and freezing is bad for any delicate reed system. And it was during that time frame that the reed went south on me. (Pun intended).
I'm not sure that sub-freezing temperatures have much effect on metal that isn't moving. But that's just a guess; I'm no metallurgist. However, reeds are much less fragile than you might imagine.
Too bad about the Canadian distributor not carrying MS reedplates.I wonder i you could verify that independently; it's possible that the music store employees simply didn't want to bother and had hoped to sell you something from stock on hand. (And yeah, it's a drag that lately postage between Canada and the US - in both directions - has gotten really expensive.)
I appreciate your expert opinion Winslow.
I now have a new Blues Harp in G.
I like the old one better for some reason. It feels like it's too airy blow and draw holes 1 to 3. I would like to adjust the reeds slightly and my thinking is close the gap a little. (Carefully)
Reeds sonetimes fail just because they fail. It happens.
They can also fail from too much stress. Bending with good technique doesn't tend to hurt reeds, but if you use too much breath force or try to push the reed beyond its bend limits, the resulting stresses can lead to early reed failure.
If you break a lot of reeds, it's time to look at your technique. If this is a rare occurrence, chalk it up to bad luck.
Replacement reedplate or new harp? Compare prices. It may be worth just getting a new harp (keep the old one for parts).