Replacing Reed Plates
Hello ... I have been looking for someone that has asked this question, but from my search I didn't find anything. Can you replace hohner reed plates with lee oskar or vs vera? Or any brand that supplies reed plates? I mean if they are the same shape couldn't it be done? Or say you had a hohner blueband harp and wanted to replace the reed plates with something better could that work?
Thanks for reading my post.
It's a bit of a hack to try to fit one brand's reeds on another's comb. The spacing between one reed and the next is the same for most brands (Seydel being the exception, their reeds are spaced farther apart). But size and shape of the reedplate and placement of screw holes for the reedplates and covers may be different enough to make it way too much work.
Both the LO and the SP20 have a raised edge running around the the comb that encloses the reedplate and holds it snugly in place. If the reedplate is too big, it won't fit into that area. LO reedplates are too long and too deep to fit on a SP20. And that's before you even take the covers off to look at screw hole placement.
Something using a similar approach but a good deal less pracitical: http://youtu.be/v3Q2HZRjHHQ
Spirittoo,
You're probably barking up a tough tree..Depending on the harmonica brand and model, the reed plates are very likely not the same size and if they were the hole placement for the mounting screws would be in different locations. Lastly the reed plates are the most expensive parts of the harmonica, so I think that the cost would outway any benefit.
-McRick