Re: [Harp-L] re: One (sort of) newbie's perspective

[David Payne <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Like when I were a lad, soaking harmonicas before playing them was,  
factually, the right thing to do. Then we filed down the swollen comb.  
Arrgh

Merry Christmas

Richard"


I think this only proves your point in the other part of your post about facts being fluid. There is NO reason to soak harps today with comb sealing, even factory sealing available, but I am always interested in history. I've been a vehement opponent of soaking harps, then, one day I was thinking, and I do think a lot about things that don't really matter- why I thought that. I concluded it was because somebody told me not to, which isn't good enough for me these days. 
In thinking about soaking, I've concluded it was the lesser of the evils back in the day. When you soak a comb it swells, and the combs were cut so that they swelled out against the reedplate before the swelled up. When you file or sand the swelled comb teeth, the teeth will shrink into the harp as it dries, but soak it again and it's where it should be. So when you soaked it again, it got tighter and also it cleaned out gunk.
Beer was a bad choice, I think because of the sugars, but one can't rule out soaking because of that, regardless of when or what something is, not everybody does it right. And beer might have worked very well IF you were a guy that blew out a harp every few weeks. It would never have time to get nasty.
The one that intrigues me most is soaking harps in whiskey, especially bourbon, which begins life as moonshine and gets its color and taste from the stuff in the wood it's stored in that gets drawn out. It would have been a disinfectant and one of those things it gets from the wood, can't remember the name of it, but i mentioned in an earlier post, is a powerful antibiotic.

So, I wondered first what would have been left in the wood after a soaking in bourbon, or similar Kentucky-style whiskey, or Scotch. I got some Early Times, purely for the advancement of scientific knowledge and whatnot of course;) and put a drop on a plate to dry overnight. The stuff that was left, the wood solids, was fairly hard and, interestingly enough, water would pool on top of it. I imagine this would slow the moisture exchange of the wood, so the alcohol would remain inside longer and playing moisture wouldn't permeate as easily. My hypothesis is that that cleaned it out and controlled swelling at just the right amount of swell to keep the harp tight.  
The next part of this test will be to soak an NOS Seydel Solist from 2006, the last full year it was unsealed and see what the whiskey does to the comb. I've decided since that the Early Times was unworthy of the Seydel, so I bought a little bottle of Maker's Mark. The Early Times will likely be used for "less critical" research.

I do not advocate soaking today. Back in the day, however, with what you had to work with and the unique situations y'all faced, it does appear to me that you old timers knew what you were talking about.


_________________________________
Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com