Checking your tuning
Hi David,
I guess I have three questions.
How often do you check the tuning on your harmonicas with a tuner? How much can they be out of tune before you will scrape the reeds to adjust the tuning, or just throw them away/send them in to be worked on?
Also, it seems to me that harps are fine if some reeds are a bit sharp (the Crossovers seem to be tuned this way out of the box). Flat notes seem to sound worse. Why is that?
Thank you,
-Taylor
Hey Taylor. Answers below…
1) Never
2) I use octaves a lot, so if an octave is out of tune, then one of the reeds is out of tune. When it beats strongly enough to bother me (the more it goes out of tune, the faster it beats, and the more dissonant it sounds), then I stop playing that harmonica and goes in the pile to be sent to my customizer (which is fortunately Joe… god bless the man :-)
3) Harmonicas are generally tuned from the factor sharp, commonly up to 3 cents. Normal play will lower the pitch (playing pressure and moisture that settles on a reed). I wouldn't say that sharp or flat is worse, it's just that we generally only deal with flat, since the majority of our notes are not capable of being played sharp. FYI, a vibrato fixes most small intonation issues.
How did your recording go?
Recording went well. Also played our first show on Friday. Went great!
The Harmonica Einsteing Tuning Table I have says that Original Blues tuning is -12 cents on draw 3 and even -27 on draw 5 and 9. Why is that? Does that mean it's ok if my 3 draw and 5 draw are a little flat?