Re: Subject: [Harp-L] Cleaning the chromatic

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 1/26/2006 7:28:03 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
taylorb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

Elizabeth - 

I don't play chromatic but on two or three songs a  gig (which is
probably too much for my audience, but...) I guess I'm not  gentle on
them, as I have a pretty regular problem of "bending" my slide  mechanism
so that it doesn't want to work properly. This has been a  particular
problem with my Hering "Musselwhite special 48."  I'm a bit  leery of
taking them apart, as I'm not confident that I'll be able to not  do
something horrible and irreversible (I was raised by a pack  of
academics).

Also, I havge a '60's vintage Hohner 64 that I  inherited from my old
mentor and that I love The tone is warm, but a bit  dull compared to the
Hering. Also, the top octave plays reluctantly (read -  very quiet and
stiff).

Any suggestions for a mechanical klutz and  someone who should probably
stick to diatonics before someone gets  hurt?

- Blake




Hi Blake:    I got brave and finally decided I had  to open up my chroms 
after reading posts here. I bought a 64 cheaply  from EBay and took it apart just 
for the practice before I would tackle my  new Super 64. Now this is purely 
for cleaning....gapping and tuning is  someone else's bailiwick.  I'd never done 
anything remotely like this  before and had recently recovered from hand 
surgery, so it was  quite tricky (I've now regained almost full dexterity :-)  
I've checked out the information on the various sites....the ones  showing how to 
put everything back in the right order are the most valuable  ....of course 
as you dismantle, everything should be laid out in exactly the  same order they 
come off the harmonica (even to numbering or labeling them  if you need 
to)...and you can't do this around small children and/or  cats...take my word for 
the latter <G>  The most important part for  the mouthpiece (bent slide)...are 
your spacers...those two little transparent  plastic thingamajigs (the screws 
go through) keeping everything from grating  together.  The first time I 
dismantled a mouthpiece I dropped one and  couldn't find it.  Ever.  Had to borrow 
one from another old chrom I'd  bought on EBay for parts.  Lesson learned.  
Now I work over  an  apron on my lap...cloths on my work surface -- even a dark 
cloth on the  floor.  Simply unscrew the mouthpiece evenly and as each piece 
comes  off...make sure to memorize how it looked on the harp. put the 
screws/spacers  safely in a small container.  Don't be ambitious and try removing the 
cover  plates at the same time.  Do the mouthpiece first...then look inside 
with  a small flashlight...even a magnifying glass if you have one...see if there 
 is any obvious foreign matter...sometimes just tapping it out dry can do a 
lot  of good (depends on how hard your head is but I can't really recommend  
Garry's method....:-) 
 
If it's really dirty...then I begin with my previously described  cleaning.  
The alcohol will dry very rapidly.  Each piece of the  mouthpiece can be 
scrubbed front and back.  (I use my Maas polish  on every metal surface, then 
buffing to a sheen...I've found that I rarely have  to use it more than once (ever) 
on these inner surfaces...it works as a  preventative against any future 
rusting.   The one piece  composing the actual "slide" (the part with the button 
attached) is remarkably  thin...you'll be surprised.  If it's indeed bent...you 
should be able to  gently straighten it manually.  (If it's completely out of 
torque all  I can think of is to place it between pages of a book perhaps and 
weight it  very heavily for a while, but mine have never been that bad.)  If 
the bend  is closer to the button and your manipulations accidentally pop off 
the  button...Gorilla Glue to the rescue! (so no worries).  It's the best I've 
 found, yet (bonds metal to metal).  I suspect a sticking slide is  probably 
because a spacer is out of alignment or damaged.  Taking the  mouthpiece 
apart, cleaning and realigning it all should solve the problem,  replacing a spacer 
if need be.  I clean my spacers as well by using  a toothpick dipped into the 
alcohol.  When we had no idea last time  what to use for replacement spacers, 
Smo-Joe had lots of great ideas....some of  which I've forgotten 
unfortunately. His post is in the archives too  or perhaps he'll remind us?  I remember 
the best one was oxygen tank  tubing (but don't now remember the diameter).  
None of this is easy  dexterity-wise since the spacers have a tendency to bounce 
away just as you're  reassembling the mouthpiece parts, but once you've done 
it you'll never be  intimidated again. Tweezers can hold them in place while 
you reassemble. A  little trick I've learned is to break a toothpick in 
half...insert each half  into the spacers in the screw holes and begin to reassemble 
around them,  until you're ready to carefully replace the toothpick with the  
screw.  There's really not much you can do to muck up the chrom  at this stage. 
When you finally have the mouthpiece back together  and are aligning the 
screws...make sure to tighten both slowly and alternately..  backing off one half 
turn at the end.  Over tightening's a no-no.   Then you can tackle opening up 
the cover plates...if you aren't thoroughly  exhausted by now!    To be 
continued.....
 
Elizabeth