00:00Making a standard chromatic harmonica begins with a block of pear wood measuring about
00:05five and a half by one and a quarter inches.
00:07They run it against a cutter that carves a row of air chambers front and back.
00:12This produces the component known as the comb.
00:15A press stamps slots in a millimeter thick brass plate that will hold the reeds.
00:20The plate will eventually go on top of the comb, its slots aligning with the comb's air
00:26chambers.
00:27Another machine cuts reeds from brass-based metal specially formulated by this company
00:33to produce quality sound and be corrosion resistant.
00:37Working one size at a time, they cut a batch of a few hundred reeds.
00:43They test a reed from each batch with a tuning machine, plucking it to see if it produces
00:48the correct pitch.
