Perceptions of harp build quality
So yes, I have begun the decent into madness, tinkering with the innards of my harmonicas. Started out messing with reed shape and gapping in an attempt improve bending performance and to make overblows easier, and this quickly lead to a workspace (my kitchen counter) strewn with screws, tools and reed plates as I experimented on all the various styles and brands I have collected over the years.
On the one hand, I have been pleasantly surprised at how a few simple adjustments can really improve a harp. On the other hand, I am getting the feeling that the production of some harps is very...sloppy. The reed plates on a new Bb Marine Band Deluxe were bent as hell, and the 3 draw was veerry sluggish out of the box, as one example. One thing that is really bugging me, though, is that my favorite harp, the basic Marine Band, seems to be the best built of them all. Is my perception off, or is the basic harp somehow higher in quality and consistency than the Deluxe and Crossovers???
Hi Winslow,
This may (likely) be a case of not knowing what I don't know, in that my expectation is that the reed plate should be completely flat when set on a flat surface. I will just say that making the reed plate flatter did seem to improve the airflow in hole 3 quite a bit.
I do like the slightly smaller size (in terms of mouth opening) of the MB, and I am very much a Toyota kinda person, so the basic model has that appeal as well. Now to replace the nails with screws, which seems like a rather big project ;-)
Matt:
Check out Andrew Zazjac's instructions for replacing nails with screws on the 1896, and his related products, tools, etc., at, e.g., https://harp.andrewzajac.ca/nails (I have some of his combs, as replacements on some MB Deluxes, so no conversion needed. Which is good, as I don't have your small-stuff tool skills.)
My first exposure to parts that come bent but flatten out when bolted down was while doing Volkswagen repairs in college. With the harps, some chromatics have mouthpieces that seem bent, but when screwed in place flatten out perfectly and produce the best air seal. So I'm not surprised that Winslow had (probably long ago) figured out why this same theory of parts physics works for reedplates.
As I recall, you started with the Easttops, which are good harps for the price. Glad to see that you've "graduated" into the wonderful world of spicing up Marine Bands.
Cheers. -Rob
Individual harps can vary a lot. Generally the Deluxe and the basic MB are very similar, the main difference being the screwed together cosntruction of the Deluxe vs. the nails used on the classic MB.
When you say "bent as hell" - how exacly were the plates bent? It's common for the plates to be bowedinward toward the reedplate in the middle and outward away from it at the ends, which adds pressure agains the comb when the plates are fastened.