Fw: [Harp-L] Fettling the Chrometta

["Vern Smith" <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vern Smith" <jevern@xxxxxxx>
To: "Aongus MacCana" <amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 10:02 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Fettling the Chrometta


> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Aongus MacCana" <amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Harp-L List" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 9:17 AM
> Subject: [Harp-L] Fettling the Chrometta
>
>
> > Having decided that I cannot defer my repair/customising 
> > career any longer
> > I finally brought myself to taking the covers off a tired 
> > old G Chrometta
> > that I had lying in my harp box for the past few years. 
> > Seeing as it had a
> > plastic comb,  I figured it would be a screw together 
> > item. I was surprised
> > to find that the clever little cobblers at Hohner seem to 
> > have nailed it
> > together by driving or pressing nails through the comb 
> > into the  opposing
> > reedplate. Unlike timber combs I don't reckon that the 
> > brass reedplates
> > would stand for this treatment more than once nor be 
> > amenable to toothpick
> > packing.
> > My proposed plan of action to deal with the problem is to 
> > make a small anvil
> > by drilling a hole in a piece of steel stock large enough 
> > to take the nail
> > heads and then to drive the nails out by a carefully 
> > delivered whack on the
> > pointy end.
>
> The anvil-with-a-hole ought to work OK.  I ground a recess 
> in one jaw of a pair of pliers (pliers are too hard to 
> drill) so I could squeeze instead of hammering the 
> nail/rivet out. It is essentially the same 
> operation....just a different tool.
>
> > If this is not disastrous, then my next trick will be to 
> > drill
> > out the first reedplate to take the  closest equivalent 
> > size of B.A. or
> > small metric setscrew and to drill the opposite reed 
> > plate to the tapping
> > size for the screw.
> >
> > Anyone else done this?
> > Does anyone make a kit like the one harponline.de 
> > supplies for "screwifying"
> > Hohner 270 Chromonicas?
>
> One way of "screwifying" your 270 is to replace the comb 
> with a plastic comb from Chris Reynolds.
> See http://www.builderofstuff.com/270.html  That comb has 
> buried stainless steel nuts to receive the screws. 
> Ridding yourself of the wood (which shrinks, swells, 
> warps, splits, and peels) is a huge benefit.  There will 
> be no difference in tone.
>
> Chris is a good friend and maker of the 
> Hands-Free-Chromatic.  However, I receive no direct 
> benefit from his sales of plastic 270 combs.
>
> Vern