Special 20 Reed Plate Screws
Hi, Kinya.
If one has extra Special 20 "screws" and wants to drill and tap reed plates on a Marine Band to "convert" it, what size bit(s) and tap would need to be used on the Marine Band plates? (I think you usually use bolts and nuts, but is it doable to use the Special 20 screws this way?)
Thanks!
Mark H.
Thanks for the info, Kinya!
Hey, It's what we do here ;o)
Your Harpsmith, Kinya
The M1.6 tapped the 1.25 mm. hole fine (they matched), but the screw from my 4 year old Special 20 is too big for it.
Any ideas?
Hello Marcos
I just received this email conversation between Richard Sleigh <rrsleigh@gmail.com>, and Tom Halchak <info@BlueMoonHarmonicas.com> of Blue Moon Harmonicas:
The Special 20 reed plate screws are 2.0 mm. Everything else is 1.6 mm. The Golden Melody, MS-Harps, Deluxes, Crossovers and as far as I know, the Thunderbirds (I’ve never actually taken apart a Thunderbird) all use the 1.6mm screws.
Thanks, Kinya.
Hi Kinya,
Please give me some tips on how to do this. I love playing the Golden Melody but I like playing in the lower register. Since it is not available, I decided to try it myself. HELP!!!
This may be a good subject for a Harp Tech study.
You could adapt Thunderbird reed plates or lo tuned Marine Band or Special 20 reed plates to a custom golden melody comb.
Dropping the pitch of golden melody reed plates with solder would also work from key of G down to lo F.
But then you have to deal with the lo reeds hitting cover plates. There is no elegant solution i know of for this problem.
The Golden Melody has covers with no vents and a rounded off comb. If these are the main things you love about the harp, then you may want to consider adapting other Hohner hand made harps to get as close as possible to the Golden Mel.
The closest thing available with off the shelf parts is a Thunderbird or Thunderbird cover plates. Tape the vents shut (Aluminum Tape works great for this) and grind down the back edges of the comb and cover plates as far as you can to round off the back of the harp. You can also grind a radius on the front corners.
The easiset way I know of to do this is with a belt sander. Practice on some old Marine Bands till you figure out how to hold the harps. You can do this with the harp fully assembled, then dis - assemble to de-burr and smooth out all the surfaces. You will end up grinding away part of the back of the cover plate tabs in the back...
Re- shaping lower cover plates for low end clearance requires a lot of specialized tools and techniques, and the only solutions I have seen for creating extra room in Golden Melody lower cover plates are pretty gruesome, so that is why the Thunderbird is the best solution I can think of.
The next best thing I can tell you to do is use special 20 covers
Thanx Richard!
Can you recommend the "best" solder, iron and technique to lower the pitch of a reed?
Kinya
Hi Mark
You will need a 1.25mm (#55 American) tap drill and tap for M1.6 x .035 (x 10mm = length of screw)
Your Harpsmith, Kinya