Before you can attach a harmonica reed with a screw you need to enlarge the hole in the rivet pad with a reamer or round file or similar tool. The tricky part is holding it firmly while you do this. It gets even trickier when you are dealing with stainless steel reeds. Jon Harl, a harp tech in San Jose, specializes in the stainless steel screws and described a jig he was experimenting with and let me run with the idea. So I’m going to have these tools machined by Tom Halchak at Blue Moon Harmonicas. They let you hold the reed firmly in place with your finger or thumb and support the rivet pad solidly while you work. They will be machined from aluminum and the channels are roughly as deep as the average reed and in 3 different widths to adapt to most any reed you may want to work on. Stay tuned for details on when they will be available…
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