Gapping

Tried to gap my reeds ever so slightly with a toothpick and now my seydel lightning sounds awful !! Dear god help me :tired_face::tired_face:

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Hi @Cameronjake Were you opening or closing the gaps and how were you doing it with the toothpick, did you pink the reeds? You say it sounds awful, in what way? Could you have disturbed the reeds so some might be touching the edge of the plate? I believe the lightning has polished stainless reeds and comb and replacement reeds and plates are available so all is not lost. I do a lot of customising to my own chromatics, never worked on a lighting but the basics are all the same Jay1

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Hi mate, I used it to kind of push down to open up the space a bit. I thought maybe it would give a bit more of a rich sound. Now it sounds terribly out of tune and I fear I may have f***ed it up. Will definitely need new reed plates. All is not lost however as I have 4 other harmonicas to play away with ! All my best and thanks for the response

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Hi @Cameronjake don’t give up too soon, reeds are more resiliant than many people think. Have a look at Maintenance it’s very detailed but before you do anything else try pinking the reeds a few times to settle them, I’ve known that to work in the past. I doubt with a toothpick you’ll have done anything beyond redemption unless you were being VERY vicious. Let me know how you get on Jay1

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Sorry to say this but it has been often advised on this forum to first practice and learn how to adjust reeds on cheaper, inexpensive harps before trying it on your best ones. Harmonicas are relatively easy to adjust, but also easy to destroy if you are just beginning to learn how to adjust them.

Unless you have really put a kink it the reed(s) you worked on, the can most probably be saved, as @Jay1 mentioned. But again: be gentle, only make very small changes and then test the resulting sound before making further changes.

Regards,
– Slim :sunglasses:

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I would watch the video’s on U Tube about reed gapping. I gap mine so the the gap is up about as thick as the reed. The video’s also will show you how to adjust the reeds without reshaping them to the point they do not pass through the plate with some air running through any gaps. When I clean my harps and they are warm I can blow through them and the reeds play without placing them in my mouth and they sound. Blow reeds are better but all will be heard with a gentle and constant blow about and inch from the comb. You may well have a few reeds that are not shaped correctly and this can be fixed. I like a 10x loop to look at each reed before I put my harp back together. Holding the reed plate up with a light background helps spot reeds that are not centered. Once you get them right adjusting the gaps, etc. gets easier but I still make very small adjustments as opposed to a couple of larger ones. Having the whole reed pass through the plate at the same time is very critical.

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@Cameronjake I wouldn’t use a tooth pick get a decent set of feeler gauges use the thinnest one in the set insert it between the reed and the plate push your reed back down gently til they meet the gauge then give it a try. If you have no joy widen the gap by tiny increments the watch word is gently, keep trying your reeds until you get the response you want. When you do this for the first as suggested try doing it on a very cheap or very old harp. Practice makes perfect but don’t practice on such an expensive instrument. Hope this is helpful

Andy2

Gapping is not very dangerous but when it comes to removing some material from the reed to play harper of flatten out a note the $10 a Walmart special is what I would use. I make slight adjustments to the gaps often and if you close it a bit close of its to big this can be easily corrected. Tuning is a different story.

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I’m in the UK mate, we don’t have Walmart. But over the years I’ve stock piled loads of harmonicas some I liked some I didn’t the ones I didn’t like get the Frankenstein treatment. My only problem is finding screws for reed plates and and face plates. So I have to be very careful.

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Andy2

Google up Rockin Ron. He has about anything you need. I got a dozen of these screws from him and he will not sell you something you do not need.

You do have snooker and Spitfires, both of which I have always loved to listen to and play.

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Not keen on snooker myself, but who doesn’t love the Spitfire!?

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Thanks for the info I will look him up

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In the UK I’ve been getting my harmonicas from Eagle Music in huddersfield (mail ordered, but they stock parts etc)

Back on topic, I thought I could improve my first harmonica by gapping the reeds, and progressivly made it unplayable until i changed the reed plates. So the advice of learning to made adjustments on something less important to you is probably good. I don’t regret doing it though, I think I’ll have a better idea next time and of course captain hindsight told me that no, the reed gaps were fine, it was me that sucked.

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Germans

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@scott4 :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

Thanks for all of the helpful information guys ! :metal:t3:

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Not funny

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