Back in the 70's, when I was still gigging with a REAL Wurlitzer (and breaking plenty of reeds), I got tired of trying to tune reeds IN the piano. I came up with this: a fixture to tune reeds outside the piano, using my (then new) Korg WT10 digital tuner! (It was revolutionary!)
More recently, after I retired, I was planning to sell new replacement Wurlitzer reeds. I figured I could maybe sell this 'reed station' along with new reeds, to tune reeds before installing them into the piano. With the advent of clip-on tuners and a 'reed station', one could easily pre-tune a reed before installing it into the piano. Particularly handy for, say 120 models where there is no practical way to tune reeds other than (1) pull the harp out (2)install the reed (3)check intonation (4)remove harp to access newly installed reed (5)pull the harp again and repeat...
When clip-on tuners were introduced, it made this method particularly practical. When I was considering marketing replacement Wurlitzer reeds in my retirement, I thought maybe this 'reed station' could be a complementary product. It consists of
• an aluminum block, machined to replicate a section of the reed harp...
• ...thru-bolted to a piece of hard maple
A clamp-on tuner is mounted to the aluminum block. The reed can be soldered and filed to achieve intonation, before being installed in the piano. This eliminates the iterations of putting the reed in and out of the piano, and keeps the lead filings out of the piano.
I prototyped a handful of these 'reed stations', before I got lazy and decided not to sell replacement reeds.
Anyway, just throwing this out in case anyone wants to simplify their reed tuning process, go ahead and make your own 'reed station'.
More recently, after I retired, I was planning to sell new replacement Wurlitzer reeds. I figured I could maybe sell this 'reed station' along with new reeds, to tune reeds before installing them into the piano. With the advent of clip-on tuners and a 'reed station', one could easily pre-tune a reed before installing it into the piano. Particularly handy for, say 120 models where there is no practical way to tune reeds other than (1) pull the harp out (2)install the reed (3)check intonation (4)remove harp to access newly installed reed (5)pull the harp again and repeat...
When clip-on tuners were introduced, it made this method particularly practical. When I was considering marketing replacement Wurlitzer reeds in my retirement, I thought maybe this 'reed station' could be a complementary product. It consists of
• an aluminum block, machined to replicate a section of the reed harp...
• ...thru-bolted to a piece of hard maple
A clamp-on tuner is mounted to the aluminum block. The reed can be soldered and filed to achieve intonation, before being installed in the piano. This eliminates the iterations of putting the reed in and out of the piano, and keeps the lead filings out of the piano.
I prototyped a handful of these 'reed stations', before I got lazy and decided not to sell replacement reeds.
Anyway, just throwing this out in case anyone wants to simplify their reed tuning process, go ahead and make your own 'reed station'.