joshnat
36 posts
Feb 26, 2010
6:51 AM
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One after another, I've been killing the 5 draw on my G harps. First the reed goes dead, but I can plink it back to life. Then it goes dead again, and just breaks in half when I try to free it again.
This hasn't been happening on any other harp, or any other reed. Any ideas why this is happening just on this key and this reed?
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tookatooka
1268 posts
Feb 26, 2010
6:54 AM
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Do you try and bend the 5 draw? It's only capable of a tiny amount of bending, 1/4 step I think.
Maybe that could be the reason?
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joshnat
37 posts
Feb 26, 2010
7:31 AM
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It probably is. But I wonder why it's only in the key of G.
Last Edited by on Feb 26, 2010 7:32 AM
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tookatooka
1269 posts
Feb 26, 2010
8:40 AM
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Do you play your G harp more than your others?
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Tin Lizzie
3 posts
Feb 26, 2010
9:00 AM
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I went through a LOT of harps when I was learning to bend. I guess my early efforts were hard on harps, even though no one would EVER have described me as a powerful player. I had trouble with more than one harp key, but some keys failed more often than others.
Be sure that your bending technique is not applying a lot of force.
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Tin Lizzie
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Bluefinger
117 posts
Feb 26, 2010
9:27 AM
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The lower the key of the harp, the thinner the reeds. I can't remember killing a harp higher than an A but I used to go through a lot of G, Ab and A Harps. It wasn't too long ago when I posted a thread about my Seydels dying one after another. Now I haven't blown out a reed in over two months.It seems like something has changed in my technique. It's just a matter of time ...
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If it ain't broke you just haven't fixed it enough ...
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barbequebob
540 posts
Feb 26, 2010
10:43 AM
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Two reasons basically. One, you're playing the bends with too much breath force and going all the way to the floor of the bend, and then to make matters worse, you're also most likely because of the breath force, playing witha very wet mouth and then layers of dead skin and saliva are clogging up the reeds.
Bending hard on draw 5 makes little sense because there is only 1/2 step between the blow and draw notes and there's really no more than a 1/4 step bend that's available and the way you're playing it puts too much stress on the reed.
Blowing out 5 draw is nearly as common as blowing out 4 draw for a lot people who may not realize that they're playing with way too much breath force. Unfotunenately, most players often don't really know just how hard they're really playing.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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