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From: t.e.d~tt.net
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 17:19:12 +0000
Subject: And then we add the Fries..... OR: Hering setup

Having expressed my fondness for Hering harps on
numerous occaisions, I wound up receiving a number of
inquiries as to how I set up my Herings. This has been
an ongoing development process, but in the past few
weeks I pretty much finished testing the latest
variation of step (#4) in the procedure, so figured it
was time to post this.

I should point out that I have ONLY done step 4 on
Herings. If someone would like to try it on another
harp, I would certainly like to hear about the results.

1: Remove covers.

2: I use a sharp scribing tool to mark the outer side of
the plates with the Key and Side. It saves re-assembly
time when doing batches of harps.

3: Remove plates.

4: The fun part. Perhaps you should wait till your wife
leaves the house for a few hours. In case she returns
early, keep a bag of potatoes in plain view.

Many of the Herings come through with curled reed
plates. The large plates (Blues/Black Blues/Gold Blues)
are usually only a little off, but the "small" plates
can be off by as much as 0.5 inch , on each end! I think
the Leveling (the process of "flattening" stock coming
off a roll) used at Hering doesn't work well. Stamping
the plates adds more distortion.

First, mechanically try to straighten the plates. Do it
slowly, and gradually. The trick is to avoid creating a
crease, or sharp bend in the plate. I place the plate
over a 2 inch round steel bar and use my thumbs, placed
close to the bar, to push down. Use a known good
straight-edge, or better yet, a machinist's surface
plate, to judge your progress.

Secondly, I heat-treat the plates. Although it's not a
full annealing process (Most of us do not have annealing
ovens available to bring the temperature up to over
900F)), it does seem to provide stress relief to the
plates and reeds, and improves the flatness of the
plates. I spent 25 hours trying to deliberately destroy
a reed on two treated harps without success.

Place the plates, reeds up, in a stainless steel pot
large enough so that they don't lay on top of each
other. Cover with 3 inches of vegetable oil. Using
medium heat at first, then higher if necessary,
gradually heat the oil until it starts to smoke a bit
more than you'd like. Leave it at that temperature
(about 475F) for 90 minutes. Over the next two hours,
gradually reduce the heat. Turn the heat off, and let
the oil cool.

5: Remove the plates and wash them in a warm soapy water
solution. Dishwashing liquid works well. Use a
toothbrush for some gentle scrubbing. Rinse and dry.

6: Check the reed to slot clearance. Lateral reed
clearance on the Herings is incredibly tight. I have yet
to find a mis-aligned reed, but sometimes I do find a
nick or burr that needs to be removed with a small file,
or sometimes just with an X-acto knife. If you do find a
mis-aligned reed, it most likely has a loose rivet.

7: Check all the reed rivets. Reset them if needed. I
use a modified C-clamp type holder mounted in a bench
vise. The punches are Torx T-5 bits that happen to have
a shallow dimple in the punching surface that produce a
nice mushroom shape on the rivets. Just make sure the
reeds are aligned before punching!

8: Flatten the reeds. I find that (out of the box) a
high percentage of the reeds have both curl (lengthwise)
and twist. This may be due to the factory tuning
process, where the use of a chisel at a diagonal to the
reed can easily deform the reed if it is not properly
supported from underneath.
I place a .001 or .0015 shim under the reed as far
towards the base as possible. Using a hard, flat and
smooth surfaced tool, rub the reed from the base to the
tip several times. Check the reed for flatness, and
repeat if needed. If this doesn't do it, I use two
dental pick tools the bend the reed at the affected
place.

9: Gap the reeds. The reeds should rise in a straight
line from the base to the tip. Bend the reeds as needed
as close to the base as possible. The end gap should be
set quite close, closer than most harps I've had, no
more than the thickness of the reed. Personal playing
styles may require a little smaller or larger gap,
you'll find what works best for you after a few tries.

10: Tuning. All the Herings I've gotten were tuned
reasonably well, but in two distinct "flavors". I leave
them that way, perhaps just refine them a bit. I use a
rotary grinder with a soft cone shaped bit. (Alternate
tunings require more work, but that is another story).

11. Clean one more time.

12. Re-assemble. Lightly fasten the plate screws, then
tighten the center screw first, then work your way out.
They should be quite tight. On the small harps pay
attention to getting the covers seated in the groove at
the mouthpiece side.

As an aside, I have not found taping to help leaky
harps. Airtightness comes with straight plates.
Playability comes with proper reed setup and break-in.

All the Herings seem to require a break-in period before
they show their true nature. It used to take me about 25
hours to do this, but after adding step 4 they seem to
settle in nicely after perhaps 5 hours. Either way,
after the break-in period, I redo the
straightening/gapping process.

I hope this covers it and that it is understandable. If
not, I'm sure I'll hear about it.

A word of Thanks! to Doug Tate for spurring me on to
finish the project.

Ted