reed profiles

[Michael Marino]

Hello folks been busy,

 

Does anyone have formulas or set measurements for reed profiles for concertina reeds in Brass, Bronze, or Steel. I am not currently looking at making them (might in the future once I can properly map some shoes, unfortunately Richard died before he could get me that information). I am interested in the information for another free reed family member that I work on which is the chromatic harmonica and some of the strange members of the family (I own a Harmonetta and make gaskets for them and hopefully will be making the metal valves for them soon).

 

The information is trying to put together a better understanding the properties and how different metals behave and what angle/curves are best to produce as clean a note as possible.

 

Thanks for any and all information

 

Michael

[Dana Johnson]

Hello folks been busy,

 

Does anyone have formulas or set measurements for reed profiles for concertina reeds in Brass, Bronze, or Steel. I am not currently looking at making them (might in the future once I can properly map some shoes, unfortunately Richard died before he could get me that information). I am interested in the information for another free reed family member that I work on which is the chromatic harmonica and some of the strange members of the family (I own a Harmonetta and make gaskets for them and hopefully will be making the metal valves for them soon).

 

The information is trying to put together a better understanding the properties and how different metals behave and what angle/curves are best to produce as clean a note as possible.

 

Thanks for any and all information

 

Michael

Hi Michael,

I'm intimately familiar with Rich's work with reeds and think that unless you are wanting to make concertinas, you would be much better off measuring the reeds on different harmonica reed plates. Rich's designs were an averaging of a lot of reeds of similar scale mathematically smoothed so he could theoretically extrapolate to whatever reeds he wanted. However in practice, he found he needed to do a lot of adjusting after the fact. Concertina reeds are also designed for concertinas and aren't suited to Harmonicas which have different requirements. There is a lot of latitude in reed design. You can vary the length of reeds by a large amount and still have the same pitch by adjusting things like thickness and the ground profile. The people who have been making Harmonica reeds for over 100 years have likely figured out what works well in them. Sure there are some that may be better than others, but don't assume the difference is all in the reeds. In concertinas, the reeds are a very important part, but by no means the only influence on tone, responsiveness or speed. Harmonica reeds have one requirement not shared by concertinas. Corrosion resistance. This limits your materials choices to something other than any of the normal varieties of reed steel. There is no reason to assume that good Harmonica companies have skimped on their reed alloys since the the amount used is tiny compared to the other parts ( unless you figure they are doing a planned obsolescence thing). Find out what they use and go from there. I'd be happy to pass on some basic reed information if you want to send me a note off forum. but your best start is with the work someone else has already done on your instrument of choice.

Dana