From: Barry Schaede Date: Sat, 11 Nov 1995 23:14:39 -0700 (MST) Subject: Did you know?
It's possible to sound reeds of reed plates with the reedplates removed from the harmonica. With the reeds opposite your mouth the notes are draw, reverse the plates and they're blow notes. The low notes are hard because your mouth gets in the way. why would anyone want to do this? Tuning of courrse it's easy to get the reed in the ballpark without continually mounting the plate in the body. I use it when transplanting reeds that aren't the same pitch as the original and I have to go up or down more than a semitone. It's very accurate. More so than sounding the reed without the coverplates. The reading you get is the way the note will read with the plates on. Plucking also works butr the note isn't as loud and you'll be off quite a ways when you blow or draw the note. By the way you can bend notes with the plates off. Quite a ways 2 whole tones or more on the lower reeds. You also can get an idea of how much the covers and comb contribute to the sound vs how much is just you and the plates. FJM yes I'm bored
