[Harp-L] who's repairing chromatics these days?



   Just wanted to thank everybody for all the suggestions.  Especially
Elizabeth for actually offering a replacement chromatic!  Unbelievably
kind!  But she and Vern are probably correct, I should figure out how to
repair my own stuff.
   Once again, the entire mouthpiece and slide assembly appear to have
slipped downward and over some sort of hump.  Now there is a visible space
between the comb and slide, which probably accounts for the air leakage.
Unfortunately, Bill Romel substituted Phillips screws to hold the mouthpiece
in place and I don't have a screwdriver quite small enough.  In fact, I'm
close to stripping these screws already.
   It's really best I don't have the proper screwdriver and won't mess with
it further.  In the 40 years that I've owned and tinkered with chromatics,
I have yet to reassemble one correctly.  When I finish, they usually look
like something out of the "Transformers" movie and are completely
unplayable.
   This one still plays; it just takes twice as much air.  So I'll use it on
the gig for the one tune and pretend I'm playing in Denver instead of
Chicago.  The whooshing of the escaping air is as loud as the notes, so
amplified it may actually sound extra percussive or pipe organ-ish.  Heck, I
may have invented a new harmonica sound.
   I'll send it in for repair after the job; thanks again everybody for the
names of all the chromatic fixers!

Mick Zaklan



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