Combs
Combs
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Combs: wood or plastic?Most diatonic harps have wooden or plastic combs. Lee Oskars all (as far as I know) have plastic combs, Hohner has wooden comb types (Marine band, Blues harp) and plastic comb types (Special 20, Pro harp). There have been lots of discussions about sound differences between wooden and plastic comb harps and harps made of still other materials. Also some experiments have been done. Most important one (and most recent as far as I know) at SPAH in 1998. The results of the experiment(s) have been reported on the harp-l mailing list. Conclusion, maybe not accepted by everybody, but certainly by me: there is no perceptible difference in sound between harps with different comb material, all other relevant variables kept equal. One of the reasons for this outcome is possibly, that the contribution of other factors to the sound is very much more important. The experiments were conducted accoustically. When using mics and amps the contribution of the comb material to the sound will even be less. This is one of the reasons I don't take sound into account when deciding which kind of harp to play. What's important for me is: comfortability. That's why I use plastic combs. Difference in comfortability are especially noticable when tongue blocking. Why? Well, plastic is much smoother then wood. Furthermore: there is less comb material between the holes in plastic harps. Measured at the front of the comb, where the tonque touches the material: wooden (MS) Hohner comb: 3.4 mm, plastic (MS) Hohner comb: 2.2 mm, Lee Oskar comb: 2 mm. So, the tongue slides along less and much smoother material when playing harps with plastic combs. This is not only measurable but also easy to feel while playing. For this reason I use plastic combs exclusively. One other important thing is that harps with plastic combs are more airtight. This has to do with the material, but also with the way the reedplates are attached to the comb. In the first place, the reedplates of a harp with a plastic comb are enclosed by the comb at the left, right and back side. Furthermore, on a wooden comb there are two screws attaching the reedplates to the comb, on a plastic comb three. It is possible to make a wooden comb more airtight, for instance by putting beeswax between comb and reedplates to compensate for the roughness of the material and by drilling an extra tiny hole in the comb for the third screw. Maybe it's also possible to smoothen the tips of the wooden comb. But why should you?
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