Ask Harp Tech Expert Kinya Pollard

I receintly bought a new  Hohner special 20 harp in the key of B.  I have difficulty playing this  harp.  Its harder to perform the bends and harder to play any note- even the blow notes. I have to blow or draw harder to sound the notes.  I have no issues with bends or anything on the special 20 in   C or Bb or any other key.   Is there something different about a B harp that makes it more difficult to play?

Mark 

I'm trying to learn harp customization.  From what I can gather, there are five basic steps:

a. Tune the reeds

b. Gap the reeds

c.  Profile the reeds

d.  Emboss the slots

e.  Scoop the tips

What order should they be done in?

hi Kinya,

ive been collecting vintage Echo supervampers and marine bands for a while and am looking to customise them. 

I've started practising on some mb's, and find milling the reex plates fine. But struggle to mill the cover plates, any recommendations.

also when removing nails, what's the best way to ensure that the reed plates dont bow? I'm using custom combs and want to ensure tother maximum airtightness.

much appreciated

Gareth

Hello Kinya!

Im trying to retune my chromatic, but I notice that if I tune all the reeds to 0 cents (or +/-2) I get the sound of tremolo if I play the octave, bust also if I tune for example the A reed to 0 cents and play octave and match the pitch of the octave higher, the reed is not tuned in the same cents as the bottom note.

Whats the best "temperament" for chromatic?

I like to play with octaves....

Thanks

Best Regards! .... From Mexico

Kinya, continue reading...

Hello Harp Techs,

Mastering reed plate slot embossing (sizing) is a mandatory skill for all Harp Techs. For many of us, this skill was developed over thousands of reed slots--by trial and error. With each one, your X-ray vision became sharper and more accurate. continue reading...

Hi,

I have been playing Hohner Special 20 harps for quite a few years now. It's my favorite harmonica because of the slightly darker and mellow tonality. But the new progressive special 20 harmonica just feels......different. They just do not sound and feel the same as the old version. Has Hohner done something different to the reed or something? I really don't like the new model.

Thanks.

Hello Kinya.

As you probably know, when you buy a guitar from some shops, you can pay to have guitar setup by a luthier before the guitar is sent to you.

Are there any harmonica sellers you know with a tech expert on staff who will setup the harmonica (for a fee), checking reeds, airtightness etc., before shipping the harmonica to the buyer?

Thanks,

PJH 

Hi Kinya

Sorry I'm bugging you again. 

I play mainly Deluxe/Crossovers, but I'm after building a Marine Band with a Blue Moon Corian Comb so I can leave it in my car for any playing in the car - whilst not driving of course ;-) I'm hoping that a Corian comb will be a bit more stable for the humidity/temp changes that will happen in the car and possibly not be good on a wood comb. 

My first thought was the issue of replacing the cover plate nails with screws, so I managed to find some for the Deluxe/Crossover on the Hohner C-Shop site.  continue reading...

3'' whole step bend on F harp, i cant play it at low volume, the aloud note is ok but if I decrease the air flow it stops playing.

Any suggestion ?