Toll Free 
800-776-5015

The above chart comes from the booklet in the Lee Oskar Tool Kit.  The tools needed to perform these tasks are all found in the Lee Oskar Tool Kit.  Refer to this chart while reading the article by Bill Price below, it will help you to visualize what he is explaining.

Also see the Chromatic Maintenance Page for articles that apply just as well to diatonics.

Hey! My Reed Won't Play! 
Written for Coast to Coast Music
by 
Bill Price 
chrodoc@earthlink.net 

Happen to you? To a friend? It happened to a friend of mine at a charitable performance we were doing at the Fairfax Station (Virginia) Train Museum. I took it from him while we sat in the audience watching a very talented young lady play fiddle like there was no tomorrow. The harp was a Huang Star Performer. I had it open and fixed in the time it took this talented 12 year-old to play Orange Blossom Special, and would have been finished but working on my lap made it really hard to get the coverplates back on. That in itself took a whole 'nother number. 

This is *not* amazing. My friend Bill Thomson thought it was, but when I showed him and some others in the Capitol Harmonica Club, the *amazing* part was that they all understood how it was done and were confident that they could do it themselves. You can too, but you'll need a tool. If you like buying gadgets, get a set of stainless steel feeler gauges from an auto parts shop or some store with "Mart" in its name. Between $2.99 and $6.99, depending on how badly you want to search for a bargain. 

If you are totally cheap, you can get your tool for free, but you have to look like either a cheapskate or a lunatic to do this. I picked lunatic. When you buy a CD, Cassette, CD-ROM software or anything "expensive and pocketable," you're likely to find a small white rectangle, maybe 1/2" X 2", with a barcode on it. It is raised, plastic, and hollow, and usually attached to the big "unpocketable" case that CDs are kept in 'til you buy them. Ask the clerk if you can have one--or a couple. It's ok--you're a harmonica player--people already think of you as strange. This little gadget, which is VERY STICKY on one side, contains two strips of metal. Cut the thing open with scissors or knife (WARNING: KNIVES ARE SHARP. IF YOU FEEL YOU ARE NOT COMPETENT TO HANDLE A KNIFE, CONTACT AN EXPERT, SUCH AS YOUR MOM) and take out the two strips. one is about .0015" thick, and the other is about .002" thick. The thin, flexible one is the one you want, but the other one comes in handy too. If they are sticky, get some sticky-remover such as (does any one remember lighter fluid?) nail-polish remover, or other volatile, dangerous, smelly substances and clean it off. (WARNING: SEE ABOVE, RE: KNIVES). 

You will also need a medium-small screwdriver, a thumb or two, and a clean, light colored surface such as a desk at work or a kitchen table. Soon you too will amaze your friends by doing this on a subway, but first things first. Remove the cover plates. This is where the screwdrivers and the thumbs come in to play. Don't scratch the covers. Remember that when you put it back together, the plate with the numbers goes on top. I usually replace my cover plates twice--you can avoid that with proper planning. 

If a reed doesn't sound, it can be:

1. Not quite parallel to the sides of the slot, and therefore it touches as it tries to vibrate through the slot. 

2. Dirty

3. A little rough on the edge (either the reed or the reedplate). This is for new harmonicas only. And before you get too upset with the manufacturers, the little roughness is almost microscopic, and besides, you're gonna know how to fix it. 

4. Gapped too wide or too narrow 

5. Completely shot. Kaput. You blew its brains out. It often gets REALLY FLAT SOUNDING just before it quits all together. Happens a lot to #5 draw if you're a violent "bender." If it's #5, wait for a future installment, "how to replace a reed."

Yes, you really can do it yourself, but it will require a couple more tools. Not a lot, though. Soon, I'll have Doug and John talked into stocking a whole line of hardware and building materials for just such occasions. I promise we'll get to reed replacement and more. If it's #1, or #2, or #3, you can fix it with your new tool. I know--some of you are way ahead of me--that's good--you're inventive, and may yet invent the light bulb or the paper clip--or even a great sounding reed that's indestructible. Be still my heart. 

On a diatonic (a basic "ten-holer" Richter-tuned harmonica such as the Hohner *Marine Band,* or one of a dozen other great brands and models) you don't have to remove the reedplates***. All you do (drum roll, please) is slip the flexible strip of metal down alongside the offending reed, between the reed and the slot--and slide it back and forth. Then do it on the other side. That's usually all it takes. That removes dirt, usually removes (burnishes) tiny burrs and rough spots, and even helps center an errant reed within it's slot. Sometimes, if a reed is stiff and resists being centered, you'll have to work your little strip of metal back into the tight end of the slot--the end near the rivet, and slip it back and forth a few times in that tight spot. 

Now, if you're plagued by a reed whose gap is too wide or too narrow, you can fix that too. Yes, you might mess it up, but it's already a 19-note harmonica--what have you got to lose? As you might think, lifting the free end of the reed gently (with your stiffer piece of metal, or with a drinking straw--free at participating restaurants) and flexing it slightly, gently, upward, then releasing it to check your progress--will usually result in a larger gap. Conversely (are you ready for this?) pressing *down* on the free end of the reed, gently, slowly, patiently, and flexing it downward a bit will usually result in a smaller gap. No, I'm not a rocket scientist, but I know one. 

You can tell ahead of time if a gap is not the way it should be. Look at all the gaps on one side of one reedplate. Notice that the long reeds have large gaps, and the small reeds have small gaps. Notice also that there is a taper to the gapping--it's not as if the five big ones have all one size big gap and the five small ones have a small one--they increase--or decrease--in a nice orderly fashion. If the gap of one reed--particularly if it's the one you're having trouble with--looks as if it's too large, or too small...well, you get the picture. Make it fit the pattern. To be honest, there are ways to gap and flex those reeds which can get pretty esoteric, and there's a lot of theory about gap vs. response, tone and the phases of the moon. Don't worry about that for now. As someone very far east of here once said, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." 

Enjoy your newfound tool and your newly-developed skill. Perhaps the toughest thing about all of this, as you will discover, is *where to put the little strip of metal.* I lose mine constantly, but I've cut a slit in the foam rubber part of my harmonica case and I tuck a few in there. The problem is that I give them away all the time. (Third, optional method of getting the tool): Get your friendly neighborhood machine shop to order you a few square feet of ".0015" stainless steel shim stock." You can cut it with scissors (NOT THE GOOD SCISSORS!) and share it among your friends or your club. Sell it at harmonica festivals to raise money; sell it at rest-areas to speeders, who can toss fist-fulls out their car window to fool police radar. (WARNING! THIS IS A JOKE. IF YOU ARE NOT QUALIFIED TO HANDLE A JOKE, GET SOMEONE WHO IS, SUCH AS A PARENT OR GUARDIAN.) 

Stay well, and enjoy your harmonica. Write your questions to harpdoc@coast2coastmusic.com, and we'll pick the ones with the most interest to the most people and answer them here. Sometimes you might get lucky and get a personal response--but no promises. And yes, I do have a slight pecuniary relationship with Coast2CoastMusic--I am remunerated (in coupons and valuable prizes) for writing these words. If you have something of interest to the harmonica community, run it by John or Doug--You too can be a wiener. Winner. You know what I mean.--bp 

***Chromatic harmonicas--the ones with a button and a slide--may require removing a reedplate, and a bit more skill is involved. Look for a future installment under the Chromatic section.

==============================================================

Beginner Reed Adjustment Notes
by
"G"

This document is not gospel, it is a series of beginner guidelines of "How To's". Reed replacement and good reed adjustment can save you a lot of money. For books & material on the "How To" start with Doug Tate's "How to Make Your Harmonica Play Well", simply because it is a good book on harmonica maintenance, it only touches briefly on regapping.

The Lee Oskar tool kit is also worth buying for two things - the brass "regapping" tool, and the instruction booklet.

The brass regapping tool is almost an essential part of my kit and has been useful for countless things - it gets into places nice and neat - and with care can avoid a lot of otherwise difficult fiddly work around the harmonica.

And... download Pat Missin's awesome "Altered States" and dive into "REPLACE.TXT" and also I recommend reading "TUN.TXT" the entire file contains a wealth of information regarding tuning, tuning layouts and reeds that I haven't seen anywhere else. It’s free!

http://www.patmissin.com

After that it comes down to lots and lots of experimenting on cheap harps and making lots of mistakes, asking questions and finding the answers for yourself.

Search HarpTalk, Harp-L, Slidemeister & Harp On! email group archives, just about everything related has been discussed at length.

It takes lots of practice, observation, comparison, experimenting and time. That’s what makes the biggest difference: Once again observation, experimenting, trial and error is the best way to gain experience.

---oOo---

First things first.

* Work with good lighting and a good WHITE work bench at about chest level and a strong pair of reading glasses or a jeweler's loupe.

Daylight is far better than any form of artificial lighting. A good "daylight bulb" is a fairly decent option if there simply isn't any real daylight.

* Reed gapping is much better termed ~Reed Adjustment~. It isn't just the distance between the tip of the reed and the top of the reedplate - it includes the entire profile (thickness), the length of the reed from base/root to tip as well as it’s three dimensional shape and attitude or arc. It’s very important to keep this in mind.

Too many people tend to focus on just the tip of the reed. "Profile" is the physical distribution of metal over the length of the reed and is determined during the milling process and can only be changed by physically adding or removing metal. "Arc" refers to the curvature (or lack thereof) of the reed this is what is changed during reed adjustment. "Gap" refers to the distance of the reed from the edge of the reedplate at any given point.  Generally set the "arc" first and then do the gapping.

* A reasonably good starting point for beginners: keep the entire reed just above the reedplate, set the end gap about the same as the thickness of the reed. The point is to avoid having the reed dipping below the reedplate surface. This is not law, not gospel, just a good starting point.

* Also, from the root of the reed to about 1/2 way to 3/4 way along, each reed should maintain a low gap, even almost level with the reedplate. From that point on to the tip there should be an ever so gentle curve up to the final tip's gap point. No bends or sharp changes.

One very important thing to avoid is having the reed rise in the middle and slope downward towards the tip. This reed shape can sometimes be the result of poor tuning technique and is guaranteed to ruin the response of the reed.

* The lowest/longest reeds have the widest gap, shortest reeds have the smallest gaps, the real small ones are very finicky, fractions of a millimeter change the way they react. The big bassy suckers down the end with the extra pad of thickness at the tip, they have to be gapped even wider than the others.

One general guideline that is often used is to make the distance between the tip of the reed from the reedplate about the same as the thickness of the reed tip itself. This is only a guideline, but it will help get you into the ballpark.

* For diatonic harmonicas, there should be a slight difference in gapping between the two reeds in each hole, set the lower pitched reed in each chamber with a bigger gap than the higher pitched reed. The lower pitch reed should not be gapped in a manner that it chokes based one's playing style. Compromises have to be made based on a harp player’s playing style. That’s why there is no set rule for gapping distance, only guidelines. One man's gap is another man's choke hold .

So, if you are having trouble with the draw bends in the lower of the harp, or the blow bends in the upper range, it may be worth widening the gap of the higher pitched reed. Also, if you wish to get easier overblows and overdraws, then you will need both reeds to be gapped a little closer than usual. If you have a partially valved harp, such as the Suzuki ProMaster, then the reed that doesn't have the valve fitted will tend to require a wider gap than the reed with the valve. Often people complain that they can't get the "extra" bends on a partially valved harp. Usually this is due to the valved bends requiring slightly different technique to the usual bends, but you can help them along by widening the gaps on the first six blow reeds and the top four draw reeds.

But when all is said and done, the only way to make sure that the gap is set properly is to play the thing. If a reed stalls under high pressure of sharp attack, then it needs to be gapped wider; if it feels leaky to play, or you can't get a clean overblow/draw, then it needs to be gapped closer. * From here on observation and trial and error play a huge part, there are some other theories of giving you a starting point, but in the end there is still a learning curve, as reeds behave differently and experience is the best teacher to how to solve individual setups. Using one's eyes and close comparisons, being really specific and using small adjustments and frequent tests will render satisfactory results quicker than doing big adjustments and less testing.

Basically from the bass/bottom end set the reeds using a progressively smaller and smaller gap. Use the reed thickness as a basic guideline

Aim to make as smooth as transition in gapping between all the reeds as in the variation in gapping should generally be a gradual slope from one end to the other. The exceptions to this are where there are pattern changes in the harmonica's hole layout, or with higher pitched reeds on the diatonic.

Usually I do the top reeds until that hole feels right, and the bottom reed until that hole feels the way I want it. Then work my way from low end to the high end, since it gets fiddlier as you get near the top.

Once they're basically set, then I really go all over again comparing neighboring holes for response working low to high aiming for equal responsiveness from hole to hole.

Avoid jumping all over the harp when adjusting. Its ok to gap the high end first since they are the most difficult reeds to bend but then start with the lowest hole and work your way up the harp.

When you are finished gapping there should be continuity in the gap pattern. Either all the reeds are set equal on the plate (overblows or light playing) or gradually descending lower in the slot from the first to the last hole (medium to hard playing).

If the gap on say, hole 4 draw is higher than hole 3 draw or the gap on hole 5 is lower than hole 6 after you adjust for smooth bends then there will be a problem with the playing action.

Optimum gapping provides for 1) Fluid playing up and down the harp. 2) Ease of bending. 3) Increase in volume/projection

* Keep in mind when you look at a patch of grass in a paddock, it appears as a patch of grass & earth in the middle of a paddock. If you lie down on your front and watch that same patch of grass and earth for a long time all of a sudden you start to notice a lot of things, the different blades of grass, changes in colour, the bumps and falls in the earth, the way the grass has grown from the ground, bits of tiny this and that mingled amongst the dirt, and then you start to notice the ants, the insects and so on ... the longer you watch and really pay attention the more that comes to light. THAT is part of the secret.

If you adjust a reed perfectly by sight or by feeler gauge, but it still doesn't quite play properly, then it is not perfectly adjusted.

---oOo---

How Do You Adjust Reeds?

With patience, care and 100% attention. Sober & without distractions. Start on a bunch of cheap harmonicas you can destroy as you learn.

* A feeler gauge 0.008" or under is an excellent tool.

Be careful when using any feeler gauges. In fact, be careful whenever you are working on reeds! To start with gently slide it under the reed flush with the reedplate, carefully ~almost~ up to the root of the reed to get the 1/2 to 3/4 reed flat then upward slope.

To do this place your finger on the reed with the feeler gauge flat underneath, have the tip of your finger about where the rise begins and slowly bring up the tip of the reed using the feeler gauge. Again use care, patience and lots of looking and checking. Don't force anything too hard.

* For gapping use a regapping tool, a tooth pick or something slim, smooth, straight & sturdy, gently manipulate the reed close to the BASE of the reed to push it up or down making a smaller or larger gap. Then you avoid changing the shape of the reed. You can alter the reed's arc by gapping from the tip. * Use lots of little gentle pushes rather than trying to force it in one go. It may take fifty tries to get it right ... if it takes five you may have pushed it at right angles in the process! Not a good plan.

Also play the note checking it, this will also help the reed settle in after being adjusted.

* With diatonics, checking how gapping feels to play without having to reassemble the whole harp can be done by simply holding the whole affair unscrewed pinching between your fingers. Use both cover plate press hard where the cover bolts go to get a reasonable airtightness .If its leaky you may have to resort to using a couple of reedplate screws around the hole you are testing.

* For chromatic harmonicas, while you've got the plates off replace any dud windsavers first. Regapping is best done with windsavers on as the valves themselves make quite a difference to how the reeds work. Generally speaking, valved harps require their reeds to be set slightly higher than unvalved ones. Again for testing hold covers on at the corners, if its leaky put a couple of reedplate screws in around the hole one at each end to avoid buckling the reedplate. I leave the mouthpiece/slide assembled for this sort of thing. For either type of harmonica you will need to put both the plates and covers on to check the action of the whole harp later.

* Altering the adjustment of the reed often alters the pitch slightly. Likewise, retuning the reed can alter the adjustment. Refer to Pat Missin's "Altered States" for more information on tuning.

---oOo---

Anything beyond beginner level really is a matter of practice, comparing what works against what doesn't work and experimenting .. hours and hours and days, weeks, months, years of twiddling and testing and trying. Use your eyes, observe and compare a lot. Trial & error.

Patience is the big secret in everything harmonica techs do. Patience to stick with it until its right, not almost right. Patience to learn from our mistakes and not quit due to mistakes. Patience to observe and understand reed mechanics and profile until its ingrained in their minds.

That is what makes the guys who do this stuff so good, not the "secrets of the trade".

There are "secrets of the trade", but before they are of much use to anyone, one needs the grounding and experience FIRST!

Personally I'd rather buy a decent instrument that doesn't need gapping or get an expert to do it. But even the best made harmonica may not be adjusted to a player's style and preferences.

And anyway I wanted to be able to buy a stock instrument and make it reasonably playable. When you can do it, its a neat gift to share with other harmonica players. I love being able to take apart an instrument that has caused a player considerable frustration and in an hour have something that has them wrapped for a week.

---oOo---

(c) 2001, Written by 'G' harpon@bigfoot.com http://www.angelfire.com/music/HarpOn

For their additional comments, technical corrections & proof reading many thanks to

Pat Missin patm@freereed.net http://www.patmissin.com

AND

Mike Easton FatHeadMI@aol.com http://www.harmonicarepair.com