help airy 2 hole manji (A)
Ok so I 'think' I might have a problem on hole 2 of my suzuki manji (A harp). Now I've only been playing since december 23 or something around there so I know my technique isn't perfect and before you recommend I go watch the video dubbed 'airy 2 hole draw' I'll just add I've already seen it ;P.
Ok so why do I think it's airy: I mean I can bend it no problem I can also get it to sound nice BUT I have this impression it's just not as responsive as it should be. So originally I got this harp because my marine band was giving me a hard time and I read those can be tricky and sometimes need adjustments. And to add to this I can bend all my harps now with very low wind pressure ( barely blowing ) including my marind band and every hole on the manji except hole 2 (even my G special 20 I can bend with minimal effort ).
Also when I draw into hole 2 of any harp and I slowly release pressure till I can hear just air and the reed stops compared to all my harps my manji stops way before and the air sound is louder if that makes any sense.
So what should I do? it's still relatively new should I try to get it exchanged or refunded and get a crossover ? is there a way to confirm that it's indeed airy other than by blowing in it ?
So to recap, I can bend and sound the note on the manji no problem but the reed seems slow to respond and I have to work extra hard on my technique or it just sounds airy and as soon as I bend it a little bit unless I'm drawing hard it drops sound and starts making air noise.
Here are sounds from the harps ( mb is the A marine band, G is the special 20 in key of G and manji is the A manji haha). I played all of them at very low volume or as close to the minimum strenght as I could for each harp.
: https://soundcloud.com/redrumz/sets/airy-harp/s-ssjpN
I can provide pictures or anything else needed although in the best of worlds I'd rather not open it but I will if I have to.
Thanks
Best regards
Chris
Hiya Kinya,
Thanks for your answer, I kinda expected you to say something along those lines haha.
So while I was waiting for your answer I figured I'd play the manji anyways and I ended up finding that when I bend hole 6 draw the harp produced a loud metal against metal sound so I took it back to the place where I bought it and they exchanged it.
Sadly they didn't have anymore manji in the key of A but they had a crossover so I now have a crossover hahaha. It's sad in a sense because I really wanted a manji ( I have a Bb on order with the country tuning anyways) but I have to say I did not expect the crossover to be this nice. The quality seems on par with the manji even if it's a few $$ more but what I have in my hands doesn't compare to all the reviews I've read/watched on youtube. It's super soft on lips/tongue which is a very nice surprise considering that was the con I heard the most from reviewers and it plays very nice across the whole range so I'm very happy right now !
I think hole 3 could maybe use some fine-tuning but I'm really not confident enough to try doing anything to it personally yet ;P.
I'm definitely going to have a look at your entire harp tech studies that's something I'm seriously interested in.
Regards,
Chris
Cool man!
Your Harpsmith, Kinya
Hi Chris, good to hear from you.
So originally I got this harp because my marine band was giving me a hard time and I read those can be tricky and sometimes need adjustments. And to add to this I can bend all my harps now with very low wind pressure ( barely blowing ) including my marind band and every hole on the manji except hole 2 (even my G special 20 I can bend with minimal effort ).
After listening numerous times to your (extremely helpful, thank you) sound file--my assessment is that the "smoking gun" in this case, is predominantly the "mechanic and not the tool". Meaning most of the airy-ness we hear is caused by your playing technique and not the harmonica. Having written that, ALL harmonica reeds from all makes and models will require some tweaking--specifically reed gapping to calibrate to our playing capabilities.
I strongly recommend you watch our Harp Tech Studies 4 on "Gapping", especially the message that when gapping reeds on a diatonic harmonica--think in pairs; if you lower the gap on the 2 draw, then you must lower the gap on the 2 blow as well. This has helped many of my students and members.
Please keep me posted on your progress Chris.
Your Harpsmith, Kinya