Re: [Harp-L] chromatic mouthpiece question

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Aug 25, 2012, at 10:30 PM, JON KIP wrote:

> I've just rebuilt a really good Deluxe 270..Hohner.... everything is as it should be ... a really good horn...
> 
> The problem is that  I used a backing plate and u channel from a box of parts that Dick Gardner sent me.... and they're made from brass.

I would prefer them to be chrome plated. 
> 
> After about six hours of playing, the brass bits turn blackish and the slide sticks...

Yes, the acid in your system is reacting with the zinc in the brass. This makes a tarnish and........ a battery. 
> 
> It takes only a minute or two to clean it up

BUT, you have to disassemble the chromo to DO that. And any time you retract and insert those screws, that means wear on the inside threads. In time this will cause excessive wear. The proper way to clean a slide assembly is to take a shallow flat bottomed dish/pan and put only enough water into it to reach the seam of the backing plate, work the slide about a dozen times and you're good to go. A pinch a dishwasher machine crystals dissolved in the warm water will lift the saliva residue. For tough jobs efferdent or polident work fine. 

One should only need to disassemble a mouthpiece set at about 5 month intervals. I usually get 17 months at a clip. Ergo my harps are very old.  

7 out of 8 people are alkalai based. 1 out of 8 are acetic (to varying degrees). You and I are (apparently) acetic. I am so acetic that I burn the nickel plating off of older Hohner chromo covers. So Jon, I guess you're sorta stuck? Check your ph.

sirJoe Leone
Sweethaven
Aladdin Ave. 
North Port Fl. 
 

> , so this will be a fine horn, but if anyone out there knows of a remedy for brass turning black that doesn't include me drinking something like Kaboom and blowing it into the mouthpiece, I'd love to hear about it.
> 
> thanks
> 
> kip
> los angeles