Re: Harmonica Maintenance Tools

[the Leones <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

Pat wrote:

>That's a quite an old trick, but that's the first time I've ever heard
>it called "scooping". "Scooping" usually refers to a modification of
>the reedplate rather than the reed.
>
>At my workshop at Buckeye, I revealed the top secret tools I use for
>setting the curvature and height of the reeds - my fingertips and
>nails. Actually, if you have particularly sweaty hands, then it's
>probably not a good idea to handle the reeds more than is absolutely
>necessary, as the salts in your perspiration could harm the brass, but
>as my customers' reedplates all go into a cleaning dip before they are
>sent back home, I'  don't think I'm risking anything.
>
>For what it's worth, you could probably use a toothpick to do these
>adjustments with much less chance of damaging the reeds.
>
>
> -- Pat.
>-

  Old trick from persons who install suspended ceilings. Dip finger tips in
corn starch/talcum. Keeps finger prints off of materials. (Blows away)
  Need small pieces of rod, try "end" piece of radio antennae, aluminum
"siding" nails, awl, icepick, drill rod, sewing mach. needle, look around
the house.

  If you don't learn to do your own work, it could cost you a small fortune
to play harmonica (especially chromatics). This is not to say that harp
repair men charge too much. In actuality, they charge TOO LITTLE. BUT, the
time & money invested in having "spare" harps sos to cover the fact that
others are constantly "IN transit" can be a real boor. People who repair
harmonicas usually have their "Own" gizmos for doing such, and these
doo-hickeys follow NO established pattern. It amounts to "what suits YOU".

smokey-joe