My 2 draw on my Special quit working

Somehow my 2 year old niece got ahold of my C special 20. She entertained my Thanksgiving relatives by constantly blowing hard on it. The next day the 2 draw stopped working. I disassembled it and found a tiny crud ball lodged in that location. I removed it, then cleaned it The reed seemed to move freely. I can’t get it to work at all, I even tried it without the covers and it still doesn’t work. Any suggestions? Is it worth replacing that reed plate?

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Hello @ingog, is the reed gap correct? It should be about as wide as the reed. Did you do the light test? So you can see whether the reed is bent in length, i.e. whether it is hanging somewhere in the gap? Setting the whole thing up again can take a lot of patience. Does the sound not come even if you also play cacelles 1 - 4? I don’t know whether a new reed plate is worthwhile in this price range? Many greetings from Astrid

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G’Day @ingog. Its a fairly lengthy process adjusting the reeds. As @AstridHandbikebee63 mentioned, hold the draw reed plate up to the light and check the gap between the plate and reed, it should be similar to the 1 - 4 draw reeds. Also look at the end tip of the reed, it should have a weight on the end of it similar to the 1 draw reed and the gap at the tip end should be similar to the 1 draw reed’ As i said it is a lengthy process and very fiddly. I still have a harp in my draw that has a 4 hole draw that i just cant seem to get right and i’ve taken it apart approximately 15 times. Good luck. PS i have about 4 harps for my grandkids to much around with and have fun but they dont touch my good ones. :crazy_face:

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Here in Germany the Special 20 itself runs around 28 € and the replacement reed plates (they don’t sell single ones, they only come in pairs: one draw and one blow plate in the key you order) cost about 20 €.

Otherwise, follow the advice given above – it has saved many a harp for me. :point_left: But I have also ruined a few as I was learning the process. :flushed:

Regards,
– Slim

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