Cleaning Harps

[Douglas Tate <100576.3265@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Many people have talked about cleaning and beautifying Harps.

Why?  

We used to have a comedian Bernard Miles, who did a yokel sketch.
In it he talked of his youth and his mother's attitude towards cleanliness and
dirt ...
'When that gets thick enough .. that'll cake off'  was the punch line.

I have to admit to soaking my stainless steel harmonica in dishwasher liquid and
swishing it about a bit every couple of years. But that is because I get the odd
sticky
flap ... and that seems to cure it.  (Yes it does get a LOT of rinsing
afterwards ..
Not quite the Ansel Adams 500 times for his photos, but like the Rolls Royce
power specification ... Sufficient.

In between times I have the odd dig into corners with a sharp pointy thing to
get 
out the more disgusting bits. The covers do get a wipe over after playing.   

After washing it takes about ten hours of off and on playing before it will talk
to me again.  Then it suddenly comes back to life.  It's an amazing feeling.

I've had a few calls from people talking about the stainless steel thing.  If
you 
watch the Adler/Gerswin tape which was being talked about last week he uses
two instruments,  a Silver Concerto (mainly second half) and one I made for him 
in about '75 (mainly first half).  

Cleaning???  'If it ain't broke ... don't fix it'

Douglas T