Melodica Blocking Help Requested
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I hope I’m using the right term. I say “blocking” to mean when one blows into the melodica, presses a key and nothing happens.
I’m assuming the reed is jammed or stuck in some way. I don’t think it’s a moisture problem. I took the case apart and let the reeds dry for a few hours. I had the problem again after a little bit of playing.
I recently decided to re-gap and tune my melodica. I gapped, the tuned. Perhaps that was the wrong order? I didn’t really mess with many reeds–I tried to stick mainly with the ones that seem way off compared to their neighbors. The keys that are having problems are higher notes that I’m pretty sure I didn’t re-gap.
Before tuning, I hadn’t had any problems in a long time. After a couple of weeks after re-tuning, I ran into some of the worst “blocking” problems I’ve encountered: multiple notes, repeatedly blocking for seconds.
Any suggestions welcome.
Hi, Antonio. It sounds to me like you may have closed the gaps too much. I’d try opening them up on particular keys and retesting. Or closing the gaps if that doesn’t work. It seems unlikely that tuning changes are the problem. I understand that you don’t think you re-gapped the keys with which you’re having the problem, but it seems likely that you actually did. Choking keys are usually the result of gapping issues. I’m very interested in hearing how this is resolved.
Hi, Alan,
I almost never get on Melodica World anymore and I guess I didn’t check the box to have this topic send me emails (I have now), so I just saw your post.
I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I believe I went back and re-gapped any reeds that looks widely different from their neighbors. I haven’t had a blocked note in months, so this must have worked.
I wound up using a magnifying glass to check the gapping, which made gapping differences really stand out.
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