Andrew's blog

This is part of a series about tuning the diatonic harmonica

Part 1 - Tune a harmonica using your ears and a simple chromatic tuner
Part 2 - More Better - ultra precision tuning
Part 3 - Perfect Pitch: Using breath dynamics for tuning
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Can you have too much of a good thing? Probably.

Can a harp be in absolute perfect tune? Maybe. If you don't care all that much about harmonica tuning (as long as your harp doesn't sound too bad), you can stop reading this and go back to playing some mean harp or practicing scales.

You can find a straightforward method of tuning a diatonic harmonica here: Tune a harmonica using your ears and a simple chromatic tuner. That will get your harp sounding very nicely.

If you obsess about tuning and are willing to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to get it perfect, read on!

In summary, we will apply the same strategy we've used to get the octaves in tune to the fifths and thirds.

Here's an important fact: You need to tune every Fifth with as much accuracy as you can.

What's so special about the fifths?

Every note of the scale has a purpose. For example, the Thirds and the Sevenths give the scale it's general sense of being (major, minor, dominant...). Fifths imply the Tonic; they are closely related to the tonic. It's important to get the tuning of the fifth (and fourth - same thing) right to make the chord sound nice.

Since the tonic and fifth are so closely related, the margin of error is considerably tight. A very small adjustment can go a long way. Often a fifths is tuned to less than 2 cents from ET, so even if you like your harps tuned to ET, you should be able to get away with such a small offset - you get the best of both worlds.

No chromatic tuner will be of help - you need to use your ears for adjustments this precise.

There are a lot of fifths on the standard diatonic harp. Every arrow in this picture is an interval of a fifth. If you enjoy tuning, dig in!

I can't tongue-block these intervals without affecting my embouchure which will cause some bending of these notes. That's not helpful to precise tuning! To play these intervals with a natural embouchure, you can isolate these pairs of reeds with the cover plates off using one finger to mute the thirds.

There are two chords on the draw plate so there are two different Fifths! The 2 draw is the tonic of the 1-2-3-4-5 draw chord. But the 4 draw is the tonic to the 4-5-6 minor chord. So 2-4 draw is an interval of a fifth, but so is 4-6 draw. These notes are repeated up the harp so 6-8 is a fifth, too.

Waitaminute! 6-8 is a fourth! Yes, but 8-6 is a fifth!. Take a minute to think about that...

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And 8-10 is a fifth.

So tune the fifths with your tuner and then fine tune them with your ears. Play the tonic and the fifth and eliminate beating in the same way you eliminate beating when you tune octaves (using variable breath force to figure out which way to adjust the notes. See here: Tune a harmonica using your ears and a simple chromatic tuner. These beats are a little harder to hear than straight octaves, but they are there.

Thirds anyone?

Now that you have tuned all the fifths to perfection, can you use the same process with the thirds? Sure. Play the tonic and third together and fine-tune it to eliminate beats.

On the draw plate, there are two chords so there are two thirds. The 3 and 7 draw are major thirds to the 2 draw. The 5 and 9 draw are minor thirds to the 4 and 8 draw. Since major thirds need to be tuned about 12 cents flat to be just, you can compromise and find a nice sounding spot in between equal (0) and just (-12). Minor thirds are just at +16 but they sound pretty good near zero.

Remember the 5 draw is also the flat seventh of the 2 draw as well as the minor third of the 4 draw. What sounds good for one may not sound so good for the other. You decide what's best...

This is an extended French TunerTuner™. They are not part of my tool kit but are available separately.

What does it do? It helps tune the Fifths, Thirds as well as the Octaves on the blow plate.
The extended French Tuner works just like the regular FT. It plays octaves on one side and plays the other intervals on the other side.

Octaves:

Fifths:

You don't need any fancy equipment to tune properly. Even the French tuner/extended FT is just a tool to speed up the process. Use your ears. I'm posting these images to offer you a further visual example of what reeds to tune as pairs.

Some points to remember about tuning intervals relative to the tonic:

- If you play both the Tonic and the Fifth, a chromatic tuner will indicate the tonic - even if the tonic is the higher note (example, 3-4 blow or 6-8 draw.)
- Use your ears just like when tuning perfect octaves.
- If you hear beating that disappears when you increase your breath force, the bottom reed is tuned higher than the top reed (again, even if the bottom reed is the fifth)

Happy tuning!

Rockin Ron told me that he gets quite a few technical support questions about replacement reed plates. The harmonica looks like a simple instrument but once you have taken it apart for the first time, you realize how important all the little details can be!

Here's a video about the basics of installing new reed plates into your favorite harp:

I offered some Mysterious Embossing Instructions which included a clue you can download and print out.

This video explains the clue I gave, my reason for offering it in this way and a demonstration of how I use indirect light and a three-dimensional view to make quick and effective work of embossing harmonica slots.

With this method, you get benefits similar to using a microscope and a light-table but avoid the respective disadvantages and limitations of those devices.

This is about methodology.

I made yet another harmonica tweaking video.

Here's a video demonstrating some of the things that are straightforward to quantify so that you can make changes that have a measurable benefit.

Some of these things include:

Tuning: It's easy to measure the pitch of a reed and whether it's in tune with another reed. Play all the octaves available and listen for "beating".

Bending: Bend the 3 draw (or any other bend) with as little force as you possibly can. You will find a "blind spot" somewhere in the middle where the workload is handed off from the draw reed to the blow reed as you bend down. How much work is needed to "skip over" this blind spot can be felt, albeit subjectively; it tends to be more work on lower key harps. We learn to "skip over" this blind spot early on when we are learning to bend. A well-playing harp can be played with very little breath force without having to work hard around the "blind spot".

Reed shape efficiency: By playing a single reed using your lips on the plate off the comb, you can get sensory feedback on how easily the note responds, how much flow you need to make the note sound strong, and how loud the note is. A well-shaped reed will make the whole reed plate vibrate when you play it.

Reed shape efficiency (again): By bending the single reed's note down, you can determine if the reed is prone to squealing. That's a great indicator of how efficiently the reed is set up.

I have an ongoing process of quality improvement and I devote some time and resources for research and development on certain projects. I've enlisted the help of a number of players to do some testing. I need the input of different players to determine if a particular change to a comb design is indeed an improvement that can be measured.

In cases where the improvement is felt across the board, the change becomes part of my standard design.

In some cases, the change is subjective. Some may love it while others may hate it. In that case, I can offer the new feature as an option so that customers can get a truly customized comb, made to order with or without any desired design tweaks.

I recently had some testers compare two combs. Both were identical except for the hole spacing. The Hohner Rocket boasts wider spaced holes and I wanted to provide that experience without making the comb tines too thin.

Wide openings and standard openings

The tines are only thin at the opening and become a normal spaced channel to provide less compressible volume a little further down. This is to improve responsiveness. The hole openings are 40 per cent wider than standard Marine Band comb openings.

Feedback is trickling in and I am considering it carefully.

My next test will involve resonance chambers. I feel the consensus is that thinner combs offer better response because there is a smaller compressible volume between your lips and the reeds. But thicker combs offer a larger resonance chamber and some prefer the tone of a thicker comb. Here is not-too-thick comb with enlarged resonance chamber. The aim of this design is to get the sound of a thick comb with the responsiveness of a thin comb.

Comb with built-in resonance chambers

Comb with standard shaped tines

I will be looking for more testers in the near future. I need to finish getting feedback from the first test as well as tweak the "resonance chamber" design before I call for more testers. Stay tuned!

***Update 2016/05***

I have come to the conclusion that resonance chambers have no real benefit and some drawbacks, namely that they can interefere with the performance of some bends/overbends. The original, classic comb design with straight chambers provides the best, smoothest performance.

Although this doesn't result in any innovation, it does provide some helpful evidence as to what makes a harp play well. I believe this project was time well spent.

Acrylic is horrible on the environment to make in terms of the chemicals that are put into the air but it is sustainable once it is produced. It can be recycled or re-purposed. That being said, my community does not recycle acrylic. It goes into landfill.

So when I stumbled upon a small amount of discarded Plexiglass, I decided to give it a new home. After some tinkering, I found a way to produce some pretty nifty combs and French Tuners!

Once the sides are flat-sanded for air tightness and the tips finished to a smooth matte surface, they look like they are made of ice. Canadian-made ice combs for sale!

I am offering these combs at budget prices. They look terrific, offer quick response and sound great, but they don't offer the same juicy timbre as my Dark combs. They are most certainly a huge upgrade from stock combs and will add some punch to your harps.

If you want a comb that gets the job done at an economical price, this is the comb for you.

Limited quantities available. Click here to order. (Sold out!)

My wife says I look like a clapping seal.

Yes, I do.