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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Its harder than it looks...
Its harder than it looks...
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Philosofy
244 posts
Jul 19, 2009
6:54 PM
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My boss bought a used Marine Band, and showed it to me. I offered to clean it up. Should be no problem, right?
So, pry it apart without difficulty. Its dirty, but the comb is relatively clean. Some Brasso on the read plates shined them up. Brasso on the covers helped, but they still had some rust. Got some buffing compound (finest grit), and the buffing wheel on my Dremel cleaned them up. Not perfect, but pretty good. Some of the corrosion got through the plating, but it still looked good.
The nails, however, were a goner. Pretty rusty. But I found that the local Ace Hardware stocks 1.6 and 2.0 nuts and bolts. The 20 mm length works fine.
So, I sand the comb flat, but on 2 coats of spray lacquer, sand one more time. I cobbled together a jig with two toggle clamps to hold the reed plates on the comb, bring it to the drill press, and drill the nail holes big enough to fit the bolts. Still working great. Next comes the cover plates: drill three holes, looking good. The fourth hole: the comb snaps when drilling. Damn. Out comes the super glue: that should work. It does, but after I sanded flat again, it broke in another place when I was assembling it. Shit.
I have an old D flat Marine band: put it in my jig with a reed plate, and drill the holes. Put it together, but the blow notes aren't working. The slots on the D flat comb aren't long enough. So I get a file, and work on lengthening the slots. Broke a tooth.
That's OK, I'm a good woodworker. I had tried making a comb for my Suzuki Promaster before, but found that the router table was too aggressive with the thin teeth. So I traced the pattern on some bloodwood I had, and pulled out the scrollsaw (my bandsaw is on the fritz.) Saw the long side of the teeth, but breaking them off is a problem. A tooth breaks in the process. Oh well, I have more comb templates.
Out comes another piece of wood, drill the holes, trace the pattern, but this time I drill a hole at the end of the slot first. Then off to the scrollsaw, and saw the teeth out. Looking good! I assemble the harp without the covers, but no sound. Hmmm. In my inspection, another tooth breaks! Fuck! I give up.
So tomorrow I give my boss an old Lee Oskar, and call it quits.
I plan on making a jig for my table saw and my dado stack, similar to a box jig. Maybe then I can make a comb without breaking the teeth.
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Buddha
851 posts
Jul 19, 2009
7:06 PM
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one component of being good at something is to never quit. Let me help you, if you want a new marine band comb or a composite one, send me an email.
groovygypsy@gmail.com
Last Edited by on Jul 19, 2009 7:41 PM
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jonsparrow
634 posts
Jul 19, 2009
7:22 PM
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lol what a mess. if that was me id be screamin an cursing.
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Bluzdude46
72 posts
Jul 19, 2009
9:58 PM
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Phil,
I'll be the first to admit I wouldn't have gotten half that far. My great success thus far is watching Buddha's youtube on embossing and I finally brought back an old SP I gave up on years ago. Still leaking but it plays now. Will be a work in progress, baby steps. I don't think I have the patience, the time or the tools to even consider changing out nails for screws, let alone cutting a new comb. In fact, Marine Bands haven't even been taken apart on my desk yet, I'm still strictly a screw on plate and cover guy. But we are learning. 10 years ago I jam a reed too badly and I'm buying a new harp. Now I have a full decent set for stage and a backup for everything I need that plays well.
I plan on tearing apart my first Marine Band next week to see if I can do it. Waiting on Butcher block oil. Haven't even tried to replace a reed yet. We shall see.
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Andrew
457 posts
Jul 20, 2009
2:44 AM
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"So tomorrow I give my boss an old Lee Oskar, and call it quits."
Assuming it wasn't a mouse-ear or he doesn't know what one of those is!
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Kingley
255 posts
Jul 20, 2009
6:56 AM
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"one component of being good at something is to never quit"
That is so true.
The thing is that you have taken the biggest step by attempting to do it. I suspect that the other problems were caused by the frustration of the first errors. It's quite usual for people to rush things, pay less attention to detail when they get stressed.
The main thing to remember is that when you start to get stressed by it, leave it alone until you have calmed down and then try again.
My advice for what it's worth, is to take Chris up on his offer.
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Philosofy
245 posts
Jul 20, 2009
7:06 AM
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Oh, I'm going to do it, just not yesterday. I'm thinking one of my problems was the grain orientation on the wood. The end grain was at the ends of the harp. If it were at the front and back, it might be a little more sturdy.
How do you guys make your combs? I think Buddha has a CNC, which is beyond me right now, but there must be a way. I have a pretty complete wood shop: planer, jointer, table saw, router table, band saw, scroll saw, etc.
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Buddha
852 posts
Jul 20, 2009
7:17 AM
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before I got my mill I used to cut combs with a ban saw. It wasn't easy but it worked. I have aluminum classic Hohner Comb templates available. You can just bolt it to a piece of wood and use a small hand saw to cut out the tines.
I could make one for seydel, suzuki and MS Hohner Combs per req.
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mr_so&so
168 posts
Jul 20, 2009
9:26 AM
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I've given up on the cheap harps and gone back to MBs. But the thought of the combs going all wonky was driving me mad. So this past weekend I finally took the plunge to tear apart all the MBs I have and seal the combs. Dave Payne (elkriverharmonicas) has some good videos on working on MBs, so I tried his methods.
The first harp I did was my oldest one, with the comb already swollen up and warped. I pried all the nails out, and sanded the comb flat, but broke two teeth when I was trimming the ends. No problem, a little carpenters glue fixed it again. Then I used salad bowl/butchers block oil to seal the comb. The nails went back in nicely, started by hand and then pushed in with the head of my small wire cutters (used to pull them, as Dave suggests). It all worked so well, I did the same with my three new MBs. They already play better, and I'm not worried about messing them up now.
I tried a little bit of embossing and gapping on the oldest harp, but I think I'll get more into that later. Thanks to Dave, Buddha, Adam and everyone who has shared info on this stuff via Youtube. It's saved a lot of time and damage to harmonicas, I'm sure of that.
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ChrisA
49 posts
Jul 20, 2009
11:41 AM
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Just finished last week a mid 70's MB in the cardboard box i found in an antique shop for 18 dollars cdn. As per Dave Payne as Mr sosandso mentionned in the post above I sanded the comb, rounded all corners and sealed with butcher's block oil, beautiful looking finish btw. Obviously the nails are getting brittle, I put them back in anyways, i guess to preserve the older look, went fine, no gap between comb and reed plates. The cover plates are nickel plated as opposed to chrome which is the standard for number of years. Very nice smooth tone, had to sharpen the 2 draw and 5 draw a little, also embossed the 1234 draws. You might want to check this page for an historical of the MB over the years with pics and all:
http://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q38.html
Btw, I got the butcher's block oil from my local hardware store, it's called Terranova Naturoil, food grade, non-toxic and inexpensive.
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ChrisA
50 posts
Jul 20, 2009
1:51 PM
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Mr soandso, I use an artist rounded brush about an half-inch i diameter, 2 inches long, goes well between the tines, I put 3 coats as well, I also did 2 more newer MB's, no more swelling, so far so good.
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Philosofy
246 posts
Jul 20, 2009
7:40 PM
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I got a used A harp tonight from my instructor, John Costa. I'll try to install it next weekend.
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