how to tell if a reed has failled.

Original title was Help! I think I borked it. But in the end this was the adult tittle to post.

Haha Hiya Kinya,

So I think I may have broken a reed.

First let me explain haha. Okay so I have a marine band in the key of a ( bought it last December after David told me I needed an a for the lessons ) and boi has this harp been through a lot. Firstly, I've been doing the lessons with it but I've taken this thing everywhere I've been in the last year. Hot/cold (I live in Canada so hello -40 ).

Keep in mind my harp has been working perfectly throughout all of this.

Last month I decided it was time to open and clean my harp. Because it's a marineband I figured I'd drill the reed plate, swap the comb and use screws. Turns out drilling into brass has nothing to do with drilling into steel so this whole thing has been a learning experience.

My harp has been appart for about a month now and I've finally managed to get all the right sized drill bits, screws, nuts... and the harp is back together.

Except that now blow 3 sounds funny. It kinda sounds muffled. Kinda like if you were to play a harp covered in a towel. I've opened, closed, open it a few times and I've checked for the following.

1- reed position : pretty sure this is good. I mean the reed could probably use work (I've never tweaked them) but I don't think the reed is hitting the sides. Pictures are included in the google folder showing the gap.

2- I've played it without the covers and sometimes the note comes out clear sometimes it doesn't.

3- I inspected it for water and that was fine

4- plicking the reeds. Ha! there was a difference here. When I plick the blow reed on #3 it doesn't sound springy like the other notes. I included a video in the google folder of the plicking

5- coverplates. I used to think maybe I did something wrong with the coverplates. I've miss assembled my crossover once and removed/reinstalled the cover plates and that fixed it but no luck with the MB.

Funny thing is that the only thing wrong with the harp as a whole is blow note on hole 3. The draw bends on hole 3 come out perfect. The comb also made the harp in general much better (it's a zajac comb) so I'm sure it's not the comb that's leaky or something ( I can even do 6 overblows with this comb).

Here is a google folder with audio/pictures and a video of the plicking for you to see and hear what I mean.

pictures are with light so you can see the gapping of the reed compared to the slot audio is so you can hear it.

harp_MB :is the marineband with the bad 3. I play the +2 +3 +4 with about the same breath force.

MB covers off : I actually got the note to play clean once with the covers off (I've managed with the covers on also here and there but mostly it's muffled)

Crossover : this is the same +2 +3 +4 but on a crossover for comparison.

So what's the deal? Failed reed ?

p.s : if you put the video in HD you can actually see the #3 reed vibrate much less then the other ones.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Chris