RE: [Harp-L] Chromatic Slide

["John Balding" <John.Balding@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have seen Astroglide for sale as a chromatic harmonica lubricant on a
couple of harp websites. Astroglide is a...uhhh...personal lubricant.
Let's just say you can find it on the shelf next to the KY in your
grocery store. It is more of a liquid than a "grease" (i.e. - more like
mineral oil than Vaseline).

The only problem with lubricants is that they attract and hold crud.
Even when playing with a "clean" mouth, dead skin cells from your face
and lips slough off and get caught up in the reeds and slide of a harp.
Of course, if your using a lubricant, it makes the harp harder to clean.
You would have to strip all of the lubricant off in the cleaning process
with some kind of detergent and then relube. Unless you are playing a
CX-12, that's a lot of tear-down and build-up if you play frequently.

Bearing all this in mind, I would tend to agree with the previous
posters, that cleaning your harp with clean water after playing is the
best route to take. But if you must use a lubricant, I would say that
Astroglide is the most effective and completely sanitary option.

John Balding
Tallahassee, FL

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of MARVIN Fleischman
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 5:50 PM
To: Harp - L
Subject: [Harp-L] Chromatic Slide

What should be used to lubricate the slide on a chromatic, and how
should it be applied so that none of the lubricant gets into the holes?

Marvin Fleischman





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