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Thanks to U.S. trade policy changes -> "trump tariffs", lol - using certain materials has become unsustainable for small businesses like mine. So I’m making a change.

Some of my tools will now be made of 6061-T6 aluminium. It’s a smart, earth-friendly shift.

Aluminium is 100% recyclable, and because these tools are small and light (we're talking just a few grams), the carbon footprint from shipping is minimal and much better than shipping heavy boards of composite from the West Coast to here in Ontario. It can be manufactured using renewable electricity. This keeps my environmental standards high and lets me avoid price hikes that would hit both of us, me and you.

Let’s be real: Most of the changes happening in trade benefit big players and hurt the little guys. I’m a one-person operation. I’m the CEO, the production crew, the designer, the tech, the shipper, and the guy who gets my coffee.

Because of that, I’ve learned to adapt. Every time I’ve had to pivot because of external forces, I’ve come back stronger. I don’t end up with "almost as good." I get better, faster and my tools become easier to use.

So I’m not giving up. I’m evolving.

And to the forces that keep trying to knock small creators off balance, I’ve got one thing to say: Eat shit.

While other small companies are folding when faced with the slightest shipping challenge or procurement setback, I'm just getting started.

Thanks for sticking with me. I appreciate your support more than you know.

An analog strobe tuner like a Peterson 490, Peterson 450, Peterson 420 or a Conn ST11 all use a rotating strobe disk and light flashing at the frequency of the pitch you are playing to show you what you are hearing. You can see more than one note at a time and you get to see how they are, relative to each other.
You are tuning sound at the speed of light. That's something no other tuner - even the so-called digital strobe tuners can't do. They work at about an interval of 100 milliseconds. That's why the needle or any other form of display is so choppy.

Here, I'm tuning a blow reed plate in the key of C. Every note of the blow plate is part of the major triad - so each note has very strong potential for harmony. And any instrument with strong harmonies can fill the room with sound. Little instrument, big sound.

We tune notes relative to one another. Tuning notes as single entities is a waste of time. We make the pitch go up and down as we play by changing our breath and tensing our muscles. When you play two notes at the same time, you eliminate those errors because both notes are subject to the exact same influence. So it cancels itself out.

We tune the octave first - 4 and 7 blow.
Then we tune the fifth -7 and 6 blow
Then the third - 4 and 5 blow
If we do things right, the 5 and 6 blow will be in tune. This is a good way to verify your work and "square things off" just like in carpentry.

Making both reed plates flat is one of the easiest things you can do to get more power and better control of your harmonica. It's very effective.

All my kits come with some version of the reed plate claws. They are the tools I use to straighten reed plates on my custom harmonicas.

The compact reed plate claws are sleek and easy to use. They are comfortable to hold.

They are made for the harp player who doesn't want to spend a whole lot of time adjusting, optimizing or customizing every instrument in their collection. They are for occasional use.

That being said, I like them a lot and I use them every day. They aren't as sturdy as the dual reed plate claws - and for harp service providers, that's what I recommend. ....Even if I don't follow the rules... The dual reed plate claws are made to last.

I've been thinking about making the Compact Claws a little more thick. I want them to still be sleek and easy to use. I've been prototyping and some of my kits out there may have shipped with some new thicker version.

I tried making them out of bulletproof steel just for fun. They look great but metal is not the ideal material for this.
We don't want to wreck the reed plate!

I've settled on a design that's more sturdy, comfortable to use and still made from the earth friendly composite material I make use to make my Dark Combs.

They are thicc!

You can order them here.

A cover of my favorite song.

Just about everything you do to a harp affects the tuning so it stands to reason the last thing you should do is adjust the tuning.
But how do you make adjustments to the tuning without messing up the shape of the reeds or undoing other hard-earned adjustments?
To lower the pitch using a file, you can support a blow reed while the reed plate is still on the comb using the Hockey Stick.
Place your finger over top and you are supporting the reed! As long as you file an area that you are supporting, you won't change the shape of the reed.
We usually support a reed to lower the pitch using a plinker/support tool. It's just a matter offiling the base of the reed from the inside of thechannel with a Swiss file.

That's a good question. Whether getting a custom harmonica as a rank beginner is a good idea or a bad idea depends on your goals. If you don't really have a clear sense of your goals, then this might be an opportunity to think about them.

If you just want to enjoy yourself, a custom harmonica may or may not be something that adds to that.
If you have more specific goals, like making progress (learning bending, scales, keeping time, improvising, etc...), setting time for practice and sticking with it over the next few months, or maybe playing out by a certain date, a custom harmonica would help with that.

Most of the same goals that I can imagine a beginner would have would be helped a lot by taking lessons from a good teacher. There are world-class players that offer live lessons over the internet at reasonable rates. If your goal is to make progress fast, nothing will be more effective than taking some lessons.

If you have a budget in mind for a custom harmonica, I suggest you take at least some of it and get some lessons before you invest in a custom harp.

At that point, I think there is strong evidence that a custom instrument will help you learn faster, it can make practicing more enjoyable and indirectly increase the amount of time you spend practicing, and it can help avoid developing bad habits. Specifically, the diatonic harmonica is most expressive when used with fine motor control.
A stock harmonica requires much more muscle to play than a custom instrument.
It's best to develop fine motor control first, and then develop muscle strength and endurance. If you do it in the other order, most people will develop the wrong muscles and spend a considerable amount of time unlearning the bad habits. It shouldn't take years for a diatonic harmonica player to develop nice tone.
But it's very common because it's hard to learn to relax the muscles of our vocal tract that we don't need to play harp.

Yes, a custom harmonica is a good idea for a beginner, but only if it's part of a more comprehensive plan with specific goals.

I hope that helps!

"Recently, the price of Grobet files has exploded. I can't afford to put them in my kits."

A file is my preferred way to tune a harmonica reed. With good support of the underside of the reed, you can raise or lower the pitch by a whole semitone without changing the shape or affecting the performance of the reed.

I've been using 0-cut Grobet files which are Swiss type.

Swiss pattern files have a crisscross cut. 0 cut is the right grit - more coarse is too rough and any more fine just polishes the brass instead of removing it and clearing it with every stroke.

Grobet is an American company with a French name that makes Swiss files in Italy.

Recently, the price of Grobet files has exploded. I can't afford to put them in my kits.

I explored less expensive files. There are some problems but I've found a solution.

As they come from the factory, all of the more affordable files have troubles when used for harmonica work. They can wreck a reed. With some attention to detail and patience, I figured out how to correct those defects. The corrected files work just as well as my favorite - and exorbitant - Grobet files. I can't tell the difference.

In both photos here, you can see both files pattern close up and the results of tuning. It's the same.

Soon, my stock of Grobet files will run out and my tool kits will come with files that I've customized for harmonica work.