[Harp-L] Drinks and playing harmonica

[Steve]

> On 22 Jan 2017, at 03:36, Dennis Fischette <dmfischette at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> "I feel the worst thing to drink is sugar drinks like soda pop. Beer is better to drink than pop. But I feel after you eat or drink other than water, dental floss and rinse with water."
> 
> Well I won't be going to the pub with dental floss in my pocket. What on earth would they think if I was caught flossing in the gents?  Playing after eating is bad. Allow at least 15 minutes and several good swigs of beer first (water if you're in mourning). With harps that are unvalved and all metal/plastic, just wash in warm water when you get home and give them a good shake-out.  You can't do that with unsealed wood combs though I might risk a quick wash for sealed wood. I'm far more respectful of harps with valves and I wouldn't risk a chrom with anything other than a clean mouth. By the way, beer will gunk up the harp just as much as sugary drinks, as beer (at least the decent UK type) contains unfermented long-chain carbohydrates that will set like glue inside the harp if you don't do anything about it. In the old days the excise man would visit the inn wearing leather trousers and sit on a chair made wet with beer. After a while he'd stand up, expecting the chair to stick to his posterior. If it didn't, the landlord would be fined for watering his beer. A cautionary tale for harmonica players. 
>