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Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 08:48:28 -0500
From: Pat Missin
Subject: Re: reed thickness...

the gator-man wrote:

>i know that hohner uses thinner material for reeds on d harps and above
than
>they use for c harps and below. anyone know if a d-flat is the thinner or
>thicker material?

OK - are you sure you're not referring to reed length, rather than
reed thickness?

Most makers use two different reedplates for each model - one with
longer reeds for the lower keys and another with shorter reeds for the
higher keys.

Hohner handmade harps use long slot reeds for key of C and below,
short slot reeds for Db and above.

Current Hohner MS harps also use long slot reeds for key of C and
below, short slot reeds for Db and above. However, the older MS harps
used shorter reeds all around - a length corresponding to the current
MS short slot reeds was used for keys D and below, with an even
shorter slot used for keys Eb and above.

Lee Oskar/Tombo use long slot reeds for key of C and below, short slot
reeds for Db and above. Ditto for the equivalent natural minor and
harmonic minor keys. However, the key of G Melody Maker uses short
slot reeds, despite having the same pitch range as a regular C harp.

Hering use long slot reeds for key of Db and below, short slot reeds
for D and above.

Suzuki use one slot length for all keys from low F to high G.

I've seen someone claim that Hohner started using shorter reeds for
their hand made harps during the 1980s. There is no real factual basis
for this, although I have seen a few (2 or 3 out of the hundreds of
harps I have serviced) key of C Special 20s that had short slot reeds.
It could also be that they were confused by the issue of the MS reed
lengths.

Hope this helps,

-- Pat.