Blog posts

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.