[Harp-L] broken Seydels

[Joseph Leone]

Yeah, back in the day we ran the harps (usually Marine Bands) under cold water for just a few seconds. Some guys would leave them under for too long and the wood would swell.
Then they would shave the protruding wood with a razor blade to keep from ripping their lips. So the problem then was that you had to wet the harps 
every time you played so as to bring the shrunk wood back to the edges of the reed plates. That’s if you were a pucker player. Otherwise? too much leakage. If you tongue
blocked, no bigga deal. 
Btw: cold water was used because it not only caused the reed plates to contract, it also cause the reeds to contract MORE. Why? Because they were much thinner brass and
more sensitive to temperature. Ergo, tighter reed slot tolerances. Not only that but the water/swelling against the nails holding everything together formed a sort of gasket. Which
also lessened leakage. Such infinitesimally small amount as there was.  

I didn’t shave the combs. I would take the harp apart and use an emory board to round off all the channel’s edges. So even if the wood stuck out a bit, no problemo. I was a tongue blocker 
having these rounded edges could be felt against the tongue and actually allowed one to ‘index' as to where they were. Glissandos were a slightly different story. Running the harp up 
and down the mouth ‘could’ cause a bit of abrasion. I used to wet the harps in Vodka, but eventually saw it as a waste of time. I was not at such a high step on the ladder of awesomeness
that all this chicanery, artifice, guile, was worth the aggravation.  lololol

smokey joe & the cafe’s (the oldest original floating jazz jam in s.w. Fla.)

> On Jul 3, 2018, at 7:43 AM, Spencer Gay <sbg2d at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> One could also use an ultrasonic cleaner on a SP20 with better results.
> For wood combs, it made things air tight - i did it, with a MB and it sounded better till it warped
> Doc
> 
> 
> From: Harp-L <harp-l-bounces at xxxxx <mailto:harp-l-bounces at xxxxx>> on behalf of Joseph Leone <3N037 at xxxxx <mailto:3N037 at xxxxx>>
> Sent: Monday, July 2, 2018 11:09 PM
> To: Mick Zaklan
> Cc: harp-l
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] broken Seydels
>  
> 
> > On Jul 2, 2018, at 12:34 PM, Mick Zaklan <mzaklan at xxxxx <mailto:mzaklan at xxxxx>> wrote:
> > 
> >   I first heard about soaking harmonicas in water from the ancient Tony
> > Glover instruction book.
> 
> I saw Wilhelmina Mae Thornton do it in Baton Rouge. Late 61, early 62.
> 
> >  Didn't think anybody did that anymore.  But was
> > watching a documentary on comedian Robert Klein a couple of days ago (
> > Robert might be the only comedian using a harmonica consistently in his
> > act) and was stunned to see the guy running water over a harp backstage.
> 
> He’s probably using a spl-20? 
> > 
> > Mick