How do you know when they need to be changed
???
My Special 20 C. Is much harder to blow and draw around hole 6 and 7…
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Hey welcome to the forum! How long have you been playing harmonica? How old is your Special 20? Let’s see if we can get you pointed in the right direction…
Aloha,
Luke
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It sounds like you need to reduce the amount of gap on those reeds so you need less effort to sound the reed properly.
If the reed is out of tune, then it needs to be retuned or replaced.
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Just started with you. 36 of your lessons so far. Bought harmonica 2 yrs ago during pandemic. FOOLED around a little bit (1 month or so) then stopped. Started with you about 1 1/2 months ago
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Good question
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Hi @JGFR3318
It sounds like the advice from @stevenlois1 is what you should do. But before touching those reeds, I would closely inspect them for possible dirt that simply needs to be removed.
Note also that the reed gaps become progressively smaller as you move up from hole 1 to hole ten. But if you make the gap too small, the reed will also become difficult to play compared to its neighboring reeds.
Unless you have had bad luck, I doubt that in the relatively short time that you have been playing that harp (and 2 years old is not old at all) that the reeds would be going bad already – unless, of course, you have been really abusing it with way too much air pressure. Special 20 harps are almost like “work horses” and have a good reputation.
Let us know what your results are.
Regards,
– Slim 
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If the notes play fine then there’s no need to adjust the gap however if the note is hard to play Then adjust the gap.Typically gaping is as follows:
Holes 1 through 3 have some gap, 4 through 6 less gap and 7 through 10 no, or barely any gap.
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