Ask Harp Tech Expert Kinya Pollard

Hello Kinya,

Hree is my dilema:

I have blown out 2 reeds on different harps.

4 draw on a marine band crossover tuned in D major

1 draw on a special 20 tuned in G major

Let's say I have obatined the tools to perform the replacement but I need to order the spare reeds.

If I were using the US and Canada version of the hohner website I would have easily been able to order the replacement reeds from here https://www.hohnershop.com/single-reeds/

because there you can chose the harmonica type key, hole number and breathing direction. continue reading...

Hello Master Kinya.  If you had me on the short list for amateur brain surgery please remove my name.  When I forge weld in the blacksmith shop, if the welding gods are not with me nothing welds so I usually quit for a while and go weed the garden... Well, the harmonica gods were not with me when I tried to replace my first reed (Key of A draw 5).  I purchased the appropriate  tools, reviewed the "Master" again and went to work with complete confidence until I tightened the bolt a wee too much and stripped the screw.  Confidence went down several notches. continue reading...

Kinya,

I have a Hohner Crossover in (Key A) which is about 6 months old.  I purchased it for the courses here at bluesharmonica.com and I’m now just starting level 3, so It has got a lot of use. continue reading...

Hiya again Kinya,

So I've started tuning my project harp (this is just as hard as I thought it'd be haha;P).

So the plan right now is to tune by octaves. This week I've worked at putting 4 blow right on 0 and I've been tuning 1 blow up (it was lower) and 7 blow down (it was higher).

I've noticed that with my phone tuner I have about 1 or 2 tries to look at the note's cent before it acumulates humidity and moves down. Just not sure how to 'know' for sure my 4 blow is tuned properly. Been thinking of finding a pitch generator and checking against it... continue reading...

How much is too much?

Hello Harp Techs, many of you over the years have asked me, “How much torque should be applied to the fasteners (machine screws) that hold the harmonica reed plates together”? As a fabricator for about 60 years, I’ve developed a “feel” for tightening fasteners of all shapes and sizes.  continue reading...

Hello Kinya,

I'm still hard at work on my mule (My trusty marineband is getting better and better).

This is the new situation I have. So I've got 1-2-3-4-5-6 gapped and profiled pretty well. I might do some slight adjustments but overall I'm very happy with them except hole number 5.

So I've gapped all these holes as tight as I can but not so tight that they'll choke when I play chords or with a bit more enthusiasm. And I've set hole 5 the same way as the other but now I'm debating if that was a good idea.

so here's the problem. continue reading...

Tonight at 11:59pm is the close of MicroMarks Summer Sale (up to 81% off normal pricing)

If you need to restock on small fasteners and invest into precision tools-don't hesitate!

https://www.micromark.com

Your Harpsmith, Kinya

Hello Kinya.   Do you have any experience with the Tuner as part of the Garage Band app.  It seems to be one of my options in lnstead of purchasing an analogue Seiko.  Your opinion?  Thanks. 

I am new to the harmonica. I have a new 5 harp set of the Special 20 harmonicas. I have been working a couple of weeks with lessons on this site, mainly with the A harp. I can not draw air on the 2 hole. I do not have this problem with the other 4 harps; so I think there is a problem with the harp. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Tom

Hello Kinya.  I had great success with reed gaping my Special 20, Key of A.  when i worked on my Crossover Marine band Key of A, it sounded great with the side clips holding the plates on.  When reassembled it did not sound as good.  After several times of playing with gap with same results the problem seemed to be with the screws on the reed plate screwed too tight.  I loosened them to barely finger tight and it now plays well.  Should all the reed plate screws be barely finger tight?