Re: [Harp-L] Harp Soaking

[David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It is definitely unwritten, unless it's in Al Smith's book, which I need to read really badly. They knew how to do stuff back in the day. I remember the story about Ernie Morris, back when he was with Minnevitch in the 1930s, was doing this throat vibratto or something that was weird, Borrah grabbed Ernie's harmonica and took it apart to see what Ernie had to the harmonica to make it play like that. Ernie had not modified it, of course, that was simply his playing skill, but the fact Borrah delved immediately right into trying to reverse engineer a modification, does point to the fact there might have been some modification going on. 
Another Minnevitch story, I can't remember who it was, may have been Leo Diamond, maybe not, would, at the first inkling a reed was going flat, would lay a thin coat of solder on the reed, then retune it. They played it like that until they could secure a replacement reed.

Dave



----- Original Message ----
From: Bill <bill.eborn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: JohnnieHarp <johnnieharp@xxxxxxxxx>; harp-l <Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, January 28, 2010 12:00:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Harp Soaking

Something I've often wondered about is whether people were customising harps 
before Joe Filisko et al - I really can't believe they weren't to be honest, 
just like I can't believe that Blues Birdhead was the only person 
overblowing in the pre-war period.

Is ther an unwritten history of harp customisation that we should know 
about?

Bill

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JohnnieHarp" <johnnieharp@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "harp-l" <Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Harp Soaking


>> God knows, putting them in fluid MADE THEM WORSE...
>> Perhaps I simply disliked having my lips ripped to shreds?
>
> Hi John
>
> My understanding is that some of our harp forefathers, when faced with
> what you describe, would trim back the swollen comb so that it would
> again be flush with the front of the harp. Likely they smoothed sharp
> edges at the same time. Then they could continue to play with
> increased comfort.
>
> Once the wood dried out, the comb shrunk back inwards and was hard to
> play unless rehydrated to expand the comb to be flush with the front
> of the harp. To facilitate this, the harp wold be placed in water for
> as long as necessary.
>
>>From a historical perspective, to me the most interesting aspect of
> this relates directly to your experiences:
>
> Given that wood combed harps have a propensity to swell and harps with
> these were around for a long time, how did a poor musician busking on
> the street for hours with only one harp, deal with a an uncomfortable
> to play harp, with a swollen comb?
>
> Did they usually trim and smooth the sharp edges and swollen tines?
>
> Did they play regardless?
>
> Did they seal the combs? With what?
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