Subject: RE: [Harp-L] Re: harp cleaning

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

NOT a spoof at all, Buck. Jason was always meticulous about keeping his  
harps spotlessly clean (he gigged nearly every day since his then Band  played 
300+ gigs a year while criss-crossing the US by motor vehicle) and  he 
liked this Purple Kaboom stuff once he'd tried it. I've been to so many of  his 
shows and they'd play for an average of 4 full hours every night. His harps  
would get a tremendous work-out. Since many of them were either  
self-customized, customs from other top-level people; one-of-a-kind instruments,  he 
took extra care with them. 
 
 
He wrote his 'Mongoose-free (an inside joke) OCD harp-player's  cleaning 
ritual' post (I might be slightly paraphrasing) for harp-l back in  the day 
when he posted regularly here, repeating it a couple of times with  updates. 
You might still find all of his posts in the archives: try from at  least 
2004 - up through November, 2007 (which is around when I think  he gave up 
posting on the list). 
 
 
Elizabeth
PS: if you don't have time to do an archive search and really do want to  
see those posts, let me know and I'll find them for you.\
 
 
"Message: 1
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 11:51:45 -0500
From: Buck Worley  <boogalloo@xxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [Harp-L] Re: harp cleaning
To:  <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>

I tried  this. It works. If Jason is pulling a spoof, he got  me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3RwSiMEQvg 

> Date: Tue, 3 Apr  2012 08:46:09 -0700
> From: dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To:  harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Harp-L] Re: harp cleaning
> 
>  
> I do contend that if you keep your mouth clean, there is little need to  
clean a harmonica with anything but warm water. If you sit up or stand up  
straight so gravity isn't pulling saliva inside the harmonica, and tap out 
the  instrument when you're done like you are supposed to, you can go weeks of 
hard  playing before it even starts to look dirty. Those things you have to 
take apart  the harmonica to clean out is usually food, dirt stuck to oil 
reside (from  food), and sugar and it takes hot water to dissolve sugar. 
Sugar is terrible,  especially on chromatics, it cements the slide. 
> One thing that will  make a diatonic really stiff is salt. I used to have 
that problem, I used to  play in a blues duo, The Deadliners, we played on 
Roger's front porch and it was  usually really hot. My posture wasn't good 
in those days and sweat from my face  would run inside the harmonicas and the 
reeds would get really stiff. A good  rinsing takes care of that, but it 
took me a while to figure out what was  wrong.
> Maybe we can't all brush our teeth before every set, but the  least we 
could do is rinse our mouths with some water. When I played out, there  was 
always food, I always ate, but I carried a little bottle of scope with me  and 
rinsed well before playing. Maybe we can't all carry scope, but we could  
rinse with water and maybe pop in a stick of sugar-free gum. 
> 
>  David
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com