Quick, Easy, and Cheap Tuning Tips
Hello Harp Techs, don’t be surprised if what you will learn here today will soon become your default method for tuning harmonica BLOW reeds.
What's the biggest bummer about tuning the hidden BLOW reeds? Most people will respond that it is very time consuming to remove/tune-replace/blow check-remove/tune-replace/blow check-remove/tune-replace/blow check … repeat about 20 to 40 times!
Try this:
Disassemble your harmonica down to BLOW and DRAW reed plates and Comb (shown here is the Hohner Special 20 diatonic harmonica)
Line up 1” wide 3M Blue Painter’s Tape over the DRAW side of the comb
Apply even pressure to seal off all openings for air to escape
Fold tape over the edges of the comb
Replace (without the machine screws) the BLOW reed plate onto the BLOW side of the comb. Just for ‘grins’, blow a few notes to prove to yourself just how loud your blow reeds will sound when isolated from it’s draw reeds ;o)
Starting with the #1 Blow reed, my Peterson iStroboSoft chromatic tuner revealed that the reed was out of tune by +8 cents (# sharp). Here I am removing reed material with a Richard Sleigh draw scrapper, from the base of the reed to “slow it down” (b flatten) the #1 reed to my target--in this case was 0 (zero)
Return the reed plate onto the blow side of the comb. Blow and check reed #1; hmm +6 cents, ah so close, repeat until I hit my target (zero). Next repeat the steps to reed #2, #3, etc., until all ten blow reeds have been tuned to match the desired Intonation Tuning recipe.
Another wonderful benefit is that it is snap to check your octaves.
After your BLOW reeds have been tuned to your (and your Tuner’s ;o) satisfaction, remove the blue tape, replace your BLOW and DRAW reed plates and secure in place the reed plate machine screws.
Finally, with the DRAW reed’s underbelly “fully exposed” (not shown), it will be easy for you to complete the tuning of your your harmonica.
For many first time tuners, it will be helpful to watch the following Harp Tech Study Videos before starting:
Your Harpsmith, Kinya
Certainly, I will ask David how we can pull this off.
Your Harpsmith, Kinya
Hello Harp Techs, another hidden benefit of this blue tape strategy is for those of you considering purchasing or valving your diatonic harmonicas yourself.
Most of you understand our "typical" bending techniques require two reeds within the same chamber (holes of the comb), but did you know some reeds can produce single reed bendable notes? This makes it possible to build a chromatic type harmonica without the slide.
Valving a diatonic harmonica will create four isolated reeds that you can blow bend (flatten) the following BLOW reeds. So without the DRAW reed plate, on a C harmonica, you will now be able to conjure up the following notes:
- Blow Reed #1/C can now be blow bent down to B
- Blow Reed #2/E ,,, Eb
- Blow Reed #5/E ,,, Eb
- Blow Reed #6/G ,,, Gb (F#)
Try it--it will surprise you! If you are entrigued with valving, you will pleased to know that on the upper octave, you will be able to play on the DRAW bends: #7/Bb, #8/Db(C#),#10/Ab
Your Harpsmith, Kinya
Hello Harp Techs, for those of you have "sandwhich" type harmonicas, such as, Hohner Marine Band, Crossover, Thunderbird... this Blue Tape strategy will work perfectly!
Your Harpsmith, Kinya
Hello Millman, your request for personal assessment of your benchwork falls under the category of private lessons. If you are interested in improving your harp tech skills, this would be a good idea. Please contact David Barrett at: https://www.bluesharmonica.com/contact_us and he will make certain to put us in contact with each other.
Thank you!
Your Harpsmith, Kinya
Sweet!!!
Thanks Kinya!
Do you think that maybe, I could send you a set of reedplates for review someday? You can keep them of course as it won't be economical to send them back from the US, but your remarks will be gold to me.