[Harp-L] Gaskets?

[Joseph Leone]

As a child I didn’t have much money. So I did most of my repairs myself. I started on chromatic first. Around 1956. Occasionally I would have a problem with a comb.
I used school type construction paper, cut it and oiled it to soak up imperfections in the wood. I only had to do this a few times. But it worked like a charm. Around 1959
I moved to diatonics. There were never any problems with those. I quit playing for 30 years and when I came back everything was plastic. Some diatonic combs had
dimples or low spots in them and I used gaskets once again. But rarely. Out of around 25 diatonics I have only 1 with a gasket. I still recommend them IF you have a \
problem. 

sm0joe

> On Aug 28, 2017, at 5:14 AM, Aongus Mac Cana <amaccana at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> I am a guy who used to mess a lot with cars in my youth. Consequently I am
> familiar with the technique of producing gaskets from brown paper in  the
> time honoured method of cutting it by tapping it with a ball peen hammer
> against the machined surface I was trying to seal with its mating face.
> 
> I thought that this might be a neat way to make harmonicas airtight too
> -particularly "cheap jack" instruments where the mating surfaces might not
> be top class.
> 
> However when I raised this theory with the acknowledged expert Rick Epping
> at Willie Clancy School one year he decidedly did not recommend it.
> 
> I would be interested to hear the experiences of others who might have tried
> this. Maybe I need to make the acquaintance of "Dee"
> 
> Beannachtai
> 
> Aongus Mac Cana
>