Andrew's blog

7 Limit Just Intonation is when all the notes of the draw plate are in harmony.

The recipe to achieve this is laid out as a table of offsets but you cannot tune a harp to be in harmony using only numbers. No tuner is accurate enough - not to mention because of our embouchure, we skew the offset when we play individual notes.

This video is pretty much an audio-only example of what 7-Limit Just Intonation tuning is.

7-Limit-Just-Intonation favors the major chords over tuning the single notes. Any three consecutive holes played on the blow plate will play a major chord. Any three consecutive notes played on the draw side will play major chord tones but anything above hole five will include the flat-seventh and/or ninth. When tuned to 7-limit-Just Intonation, these chord tones are in harmony and imply the tonic.

You can call it a harmonic, a difference tone or a combination tone. When the frequencies line up perfectly, the effect is that the sum is greater than its parts. You get a louder more powerful sound.

See my other videos on tuning - as well as my Premium video on tuning using an analog strobe tuner - to learn how to tune using your ears to help build accuracy.

I make my tools by hand. These have been cut, polished and sharpened. Ready to be packaged.

I now offer Dark Combs™ for Brendan Power's Lucky 13 harmonicas.

Order them here: Other models including Marine Band 364, 365, pre-MS Meisterklasse, Seydel Big Six, Easttop 008

I strongly recommend you obtain and use The F Tool to straighten both the blow and draw reed plates. These are fine harps, but they suffer a little more from the difficulties associated with mass production than a higher quality harp.

Hohner reed plates are "Long-slot" in keys up to and including C. Keys of Dd and higher are "Short-Slot" meaning the reeds are shorter.

Marine Band combs for these keys have shorted channels.

On the highest pitched harps, you may start to run into trouble getting the 10 blow half-step bend. It may sink into the full step bend offering you very little control. The trouble here is not only a matter of technique - although you do need to master fine motor control.

The trouble is mostly a matter of physics.

The acoustics of the reed chamber can interfere with the resonance of the 10-hole half step blow bend. Short-Slot Hohner Marine Band combs try to compensate for this. I've taken it a few steps further.

My solution has been to change the shape of the chamber so that the acoustics cooperate with the resonance you create as you play.

Until now, I have only offered this innovation in my custom harps.

Starting today, I will offer this design on all Short-Slot Hohner Marine Band and Golden Melody combs I make.

Here is a Factory Short-Slot Marine Band comb compared to my Short-Slot comb:

"Country Tuning" is one of the simplest altered tunings. You raise the 5 Draw by one semitone.

Using the Grobet 0-cut file and a good reed support tool, this can be done in a minute or two.

You get a major seventh instead of a minor seventh. If you use the 12345 draw chord, it's now a Jazzy-sounding major seventh chord.

The 456 draw chord is now a major chord, too! On a standard tuned Richter harp, that's a minor chord.

This tuning also enables a draw bend on the 5 Draw reed.

I now offer Dark Combs™ for Easttop Blues 008K and 008S!

Order them here: Other models including Marine Band 364, 365, pre-MS Meisterklasse, Seydel Big Six, Easttop 008

I strongly recommend you obtain and use The Flatness Tool™ and Reed Plate Claws™ to straighten both the blow and draw reed plates. These are fine harps, but they suffer a little more from the difficulties associated with mass production than a higher quality harp.

I recommend the ones with riveted reeds. There is no advantage to spot-welding reeds unless they are put on perfectly centred at the base from the factory. They are not. Riveted reeds can more easily be centred at the base than spot-welded ones.

I also found Easttop tuning to be quite imprecise. Tuning was plus or minus six cents! As such, it's not possible to lay out a meaningful tuning table of offsets for these harps.

I recommend you tune them yourself using a chromatic tuner and your ears.

This is a custom comb I first made in February 2016

You can tune the 7 hole any way you like. Here, by lowering the 7 blow, we gain a draw bend. Add 7 blow into the top end blow chord and you get a minor seventh.

You can modify a standard cover plate to fit by trimming away the top end and doing a little folding and smoothing. Sorry, I don't have a photo of the finished product.

I offer Custom made combs here.

Barry bought my tool kit and overdid it on a reed. In this video I will show you the steps I take to correct this problem using pressure and counter pressure.

Would you like me to make a video about your "best" mistake? Contact me and let me know your ideas!

https://harp.andrewzajac.ca/