Re: [Harp-L] Re: Who has used PT Gazell Valves on Hohner harps?

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is good advice from Steve. I've never heard anyone else mention this, but I've used it with success. If you are very, very, very careful, you can glue the valve to the sides of the slot near the rivet end. You have a very small amount of valve at the end of the slot glued down - that frankly, isn't enough glued surface to hold by itself - but what's glued at the side of the slot near the top combined is enough to hold it. The way I've done it is with a very thin coat of super glue gel on the valve like I normally would, only the valve is positioned a little farther away from the rivet. This glues the valve to the side of the slot. By the way, if you get glue in the reed, it doesn't have to be disasterous. You can plink the reed occasionally until it dries. This will keep the glue from setting up between the reed and side of the slot. then, when the glue is dry, simply scrape it off the surface of the reed. 
It works. 
Since Hohners so rarely find their way to my workbench, I mostly encounter this situation on chromatics when I've changed a reed - I use screws. I do cut a small groove in the top of the slot, but also wind up gluing the valve to the sides of the reedslot. Not very far down, mind you. No more than 10 percent of the slot length probably. 

David Payne
http://www.elkriverharmonicas.com/

 
From: Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: mikefugazzi@xxxxxxxxx; Harp-L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2012 7:43 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Who has used PT Gazell Valves on Hohner harps?


Due to the smaller comb of the Marine Band, there isn't enough space between the end of the reed slot and the point where the end of the channel meets the reed plate on the inside of the instrument, to stick down a valve over the lower draw reeds. You could carve out a suitable notch in the surface of the comb to accomodate the end of the valve. I tried half valving a Big River Harp and it worked great. The larger size of the MS models means there is sufficient room for the end of the valve.

Steve Baker
www.stevebaker.de
http://www.european-music-workshops.com/
http://www.harmonica-masters.de/