Best Traditional Harmonica and Mouth Organ Craft Tour Destinations: Where Brass Reeds Still Get Hand-Tuned and Heritage Wood Combs Still Get Sealed With Beeswax
Browse more guides: India travel | Asia destinations Best Traditional Harmonica and Mouth Organ Craft Tour Destinations: Where Brass Reeds Still Get Hand-Tuned and Heritage Wood Combs Still Get Sealed With Beeswax A heritage harmonica technician at the Hohner factory in Trossingen, Germany, once let me watch him tune a single Marine Band reed plate. The plate had ten brass reeds - five blow, five draw - each producing a specific note when air flowed across it. He worked under a stereo microscope at 10x magnification, using small files and a tonal-frequency meter that displayed each reed's exact pitch. He filed the underside of one reed slightly to lower its pitch by 4 cents (4/100 of a semitone). Then the next reed needed 2 cents higher; he filed the tip slightly to raise it. The work took 25 minutes for these 10 reeds. He smiled and said: "A Marine Band has 20 reeds total - two reed plates. Customer pays approximately €60 for a properly-tuned instrument. The labor at this...