Gapping and bending
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 01:43
Dear mr. Pollard, recently I bought some manji harmonicas which I like, but I found it impossible to bend them tongue-blocked. I managed to tb-bend on my old marine-band harmonica's which are less airtight. I opened up my old marine-band in g and found out that the gaps were pretty wide. I set up a manji in g with wider gapping and suddenly I could bend the reeds on this. Is it common that it's easier to do this when you have wider gaps? What do you think about gapping in general?Joost Jansen
Hello Stink Hippie,
As you had discovered, there are subtle differences between the Hohner reed sets and the Suzuki Manji reed sets, requiring minute adjustments to the gapping. In general, your blow reeds will have a slightly wider gap than the draw side (blow reeds 2 and 3 are the exception). Work patiently through the reeds that you are having difficulty bending, until you are satisfied.
By the way, Suzuki endorsee Andy Just, went through the same discovery process as you. Let me know how it worked out for you.
Kinya