Re: [Harp-L] Chromatic repair

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since you've got trouble across the board intermittently, I'd  first say you might want to be looking at windsaver trouble. If you aren't familiar with windsavers, it's going to be much easier to replace them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftMhJ5QgYV8
But it sounds odd for the blows to be dead, usually windsaver trouble will affect the draw notes and make them dead. 
If you had problems with both draw and blow in those holes, I'd say you had a screw torque problem, which you could solve by loosening, then retorquing the screws in a pattern from the center out. 
Can you describe what kind of response you get a little more? If it responds quickly, like it should, I'd suspect glue in the reeds. That happens a lot with second-harps, guy buys a harp, replaces the windsavers and does a windsaver replacement, BUT, he screws it up and may not even know that he was the one who did it.. It doesn't play like he wants it to, next one he gets plays better, so he sells it. That happens with used and slightly used chromatics all the time.. 
Now, the problem might be that while he was replacing the windsavers, a little bit of glue ran down into the reedslot. Take the windsaver off the offending hole and look at it closely and move it around in the light to look for that little bit of glare glue will give. Whether you see it or not, run a .002 shim in there gently back and forth, to see if you bring out off a little booger of glue.If that's the case,  it will take a bit of work to get all the glue out. You'll keep working the shim until it plinks as lively as the adjacent reeds. If the adjacent reeds are dead, say if you are working on 5 blow, plink the 5 draw or the 5 blow on the other reedplate to get a similar reed.
Dave
___________________________
Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com 


----- Original Message ----
From: "Spencer, John C." <SpencerJC@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 3:19:11 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Chromatic repair

Inspired by the conversations on the list, I bought a Hohner Super 64
Chromonica to mess around with.  I bought it from an individual, not
Hohner.  It was said to be "new" and it certainly doesn't show much
wear.  Anyway, I find that 2, 3, and 4 blow don't respond and 8 draw is
pretty dead too.  So, what's my next step?  I know how to take my
diatonics apart, clean and tune them, change reed plates and other minor
stuff but don't know where to begin with a chromatic.  I'd appreciate
any suggestions.

John



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