Harps

When I startded playing harp I excusively used Hohner bluesharps. At first the handmade type, later the MS type. Why? Because 'bluesharp' was the first name that crossed my mind when thinking about playing the blues. After about one year of playing I saw Lee Oskars in a music shop in Utrecht. I decided to try one and I bought a LO D-harp. I liked the sound and for about a year I used LO's exclusively. Most important advantage of LO's is that they last longer than the blues harps I used before. A problem, or better, an annoyance with the low key's LO's, especially the A which I use very often, is the bending of hole 3D. I don't like the sound and it costs lots of air, even after sealing the harp with micropore. For this reason I decided to try a Hohner Special 20. With this harp the sound of the 3Db and 3Dbb is better, much clearer in my opinion and costs less air. I also tried a Hohner Pro harp, but I didn't like the black paint. Therefore I swapped the coverplates to bluesharp coverplates. Once I purchased a Marine Band (MS). I didn't like playing this harp, because the figures on the lower coverplate irritated my lower lip. Therefore I swapped the coverplates to Special 20 coverplates.

Repairing harps Lee Oskars harmonica repair toolset Sooner or later one of the reeds of a harp will go flat. This means the end of the original harp, but it is not necessary to buy a complete new harp. Often it will be possible to heighten the pitch of the flattened reed by filing a tiny bit of material off the tip of the reed. This is how it works: 1. Remove the coverplate. To repair a drawreed the reedplate can stay on the comb while filing. If a blowreed has gone flat (this never happened with one of my harps) the reedplate has to be disassembled as well. 2. Support the reed with a piece of thin, flat metal (see toolset above, second tool from the right). 3. With a small file, file some material off the tip of the reed. It's important to test often and prevent filing to much material off. It is important to use good tools for this job. Above the Lee Oskar toolset is show. But it is just as good to buy other tools. Sometimes there are invisible cracks in the reed. It will break while filing or get flat again in no time. Then it's time to buy new reedplates, or learn how to replace a reed (which I have never done).

Customizing harps Micropored Special 20 comb When an "out-of-the-box" harp doesn't suit your needs you will have to customize it. Some people are experts in the art of customizing, but much can be done by yourself, learning from experience. This is what I do. The only harps I customize are Hohner Special 20's and Proharps. Why? Because I don't like the protruding reedplates and the square corners. And sometimes even plastic combed harps are too leaky and need to be micopored. This is how I proceed. 1. After removing the coverplates I make the reedplates less protruding with a file. It's important not to file too much material off, because if you do, air will escape between the reedplates and the coverplates. Futhermore I round off the remaining edges of the reedplates so that they don't cut through the corners of my mouth while tongueblocking. Using sandpaper I make the edges of the reedplates as smooth as possible. 2. Using file and sandpaper again, I round off the corner on the left side of the harp, because the square corner is very uncomfortable with a tongueblock embouchure. I am learning to block the right side of my mouth now, so in the future it will be nessesary to round the corner at the high notes end as well. It is important to clean the harp well after filing and smoothing with sandpaper: our lungs are not designed to digest copper, plastic and sandpaper particles. 3. I reassemble the harp and test its leakyness. If leaky, I disassemble the harp, and micropore the comb. Micropore is a sticky kind of medical tape. After disassembling the reedplates, on both sides of the comb a strip of micropore is applied. With a sharp knife and small scissors the reedopenings in the comb are cut out of the micropore, and reedplates, comb and coverplates are assembled. Above a micropored plastic (Special 20) comb with a rounded corner at the low note end is shown. If it's nessesary to build in new reedplates the old reedplates will stick to the micropore. It's best to take the old micropore off the comb and put new strips of this tape on the comb for the new reedplates. Warning: Do not micropore the harp before 1 and 2! Because of the stickyness of micropore, it is much more difficult to remove copperparticles form a micropored comb then from an un-micropored one. And taking the coverplates off a micropored comb for cleaning might damage the micropore. 4. I test the harp. If necessary I remove the coverplates and adjust the gaps of the reeds to my kind of playing. To gap the reeds I use the third tool fom the left in the above toolset. When the gap is too narrow I gently lift it a bit, sliding fom the tip to the back of the reed. I don't use much pressure, but enough to have the gap a bit wider in three or for strokes. To make a too wide gap narrower I do press the reed in the slot, using the same stroke technique. It is important to proceed carefully and not to slide off the side of the reed, which may damage the edge of the slot or the side edge of the reed. A very good article about adjusting reeds is to be found at G's "Harp on" pages (links on my links page). The comb of a harp can be made of different material. Which type to use? Click 'Combs' below. Go to: Combs   Go to: Amps  Go to: Microphones   Go to: Harp courses  Go to: Tongueblocking  Go to: Links  Go to: Blues harmonica Go to: my astronomy website Go: Home