Re: Nickel allergy and harp cover plates

[Pat Missin <pat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Blunt White wrote:

>A friend of mine wants to ask HarpL'ers about the incidence of nickel
>allergies and their common manifestations. My friend is getting swollen
>lips (on the inside) and chapped and cracked on the outside. The problem
>seems correlated to harp use. He plays Special 20's which I know have
>nickel plated covers. Is this a common issue for harp players? 

I'm not sure it's common, but it's not exactly unheard of.

>I suggested
>he switch to Lee Oskers which I play and know are chrome plated. 

They are not chrome plated, they are stainless steel.

>Which Hohner harps do not have nickel plated covers?

Most of the recently made ones. Hohner changed from using nickel
plated steel to chrome plated steel on most of their instruments,
however some old stock with nickel plated covers will probably be
found in many stores.

However, the chrome plating process does involve some nickel, so
depending the degree of your friend's allergy, this could possibly
still pose a problem. If that is the case, Turbolids could be the way
to go:

http://www.turboharp.com

A cheaper solution, although much less elegant, would be to find some
self adhesive Teflon tape and simply place that over the bit of the
covers that contacts the lips.

 -- Pat.