Ian
181 posts
Dec 18, 2015
4:12 AM
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I just thought it would be interesting to see from everyone here, pro and not-so-pro, what their harp maintenance routine is?
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MindTheGap
885 posts
Dec 18, 2015
4:44 AM
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Not-so-pro. Hmm. Pretty much nothing anymore. When I started I was always poking about with them, cleaning, tweaking gaps, playing octaves and tweaking the tuning. In the last set of harps I got, I've not even opened them up to gap them, just play them as is. Even though I know they are not quite right. It's part of my back-to-nature drive.
I've only ever had one reed go flat and that was on a cheapie bluesband where the reeds are very pliable/plastic. It didn't break, just needed tweaking up 15 cents or so. So I've not had to get into any of that reed repair stuff. I bet it's satisfying to do though.
Any new harps will be Lee Oskars (I've not eulogised about these yet) so if a reed fails, it's simply a new reed plate replacement. Can't call it regular maintenance as it's not happened yet!
Bit of cleaning when they need it, that's all.
Now I've got a chromatic - it might be a different story: windsavers. Nothing needed yet though...
Last Edited by MindTheGap on Dec 18, 2015 4:44 AM
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Rontana
241 posts
Dec 18, 2015
5:02 AM
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I'll gap a harp (both the blow and draw reeds) if it's choking off a note or if it takes undue effort to bend a note. It's easy to do, and the videos from Joe Spiers make the process a breeze. Otherwise, I pretty much leave it alone.
Have bought a few replacement reed plates; I play too hard and have blown out a few 4- and 5-draw reeds. I play Special 20s for the most part, and also have 4 Rockets. At least those plates are interchangeable (a set of reed plates is about half the price of a new Rocket . . . maybe $6 cheaper than a new SP 20).
In terms of maintenance, I just run the harp under barely warm tap water if it doesn't seem to be playing right. I shake it out and sit it on a paper towel to dry. That usually seems to get rid of any gunk that is hindering a reed.
I have taken harps completely apart and soaked the reed plates in rubbing alcohol, put them in a glass of water along with denture cleaning tablets . . . all that stuff. It really strikes me as being a little excessive.
Last Edited by Rontana on Dec 18, 2015 5:04 AM
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2chops
459 posts
Dec 18, 2015
9:02 AM
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I'll open up the backs of new harps in the key of D and under. Higher than that they cut through enough. Gap when needed due to having to move a bunch of air before the reed activates.
Cleaning...just a tap after playing on the diatonics. Remove the excessive dried lip spooge when it comes off and I inhale it while playing. I have a Golden Retriever whose hair gets into EVERYTHING. So on occasion I'll have a reed jam up when playing. Yup. Dog hair lodged in the slot. Remove after gig and all is well.
I don't get too obsessive over cleaning and tweaking. But then again, I'm not a touring pro or semi pro either.
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I'm workin on it. I'm workin on it.
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Rontana
242 posts
Dec 18, 2015
9:39 AM
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@2chops
HA! Ditto on the dog hair in the harp; I live with a Golden too. He and my Aussie/Bassett hybrid compete to see who can shed the most
The Golden loves the sound of harmonica. The Aussie hates it with a passion.
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Gary 62
101 posts
Dec 18, 2015
12:58 PM
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When i first started i was going mad on opening them up and working on them. Now i can't be bothered as i seem to have got them as good as they're going to be. I don't even bother tuning them as i play strictly solo. Clean them maybe once a week or maybe a bit less than that. I'd rather play and practice and put in time towards being a better player than obsess over the performance or cleanliness of the harp.
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SuperBee
3092 posts
Dec 18, 2015
2:27 PM
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Cleaning: if they develop a problem or I notice the harp is looking gross, if it disgusts me when I pick it up, I'll take it apart and clean it. Cleaning means probably a toothbrush (I'm pretty good at this. People warn against brushing reed plates because bristles snag and problems. That's true, but somehow I've become good at it and very rare for me to get a snag) and maybe some dish suds. For clients I use ultrasonic as well. And maybe for me.
I have a few wood combs. Less water gets used there.
Mainly I try to play clean and avoid the worst of the muck.
Other maintenance: mainly tuning and that happens when I notice a problem. Actually what happens is that the problem harp goes into a ice cream bucket with the others which need work and at some point I get the bug to work on a harp and pick one out to work on.
If I break a reed, I replace it. Years ago I decided I was gonna play Hohner Crossovers as my harp of choice...it never happened...I only ever bought 4 Crossovers but that's because of what happened and what I learned as a result...
I saved up and imported 4 crossovers and a Lo F Thunderbird. The money I saved by importing was enough to make the Thunderbird a free harp, compared to if I'd purchased in Australia. A Crossover is over $90 here, and T Bird $120. I got the Crossovers for $60 each and Aussie$ was high at the time.
So I had G, A, C, and D crossovers.
Loved them. I knew how to set gaps but that was the limit of my harp tech knowledge.
I broke the 5 draw reed in my A crossover while I was adjusting it.
This was a disaster. It cost too much to import a single harp, and more to purchase local...
I tried to find a repairer but no one local at a price which made sense.
MP in Hawaii agreed to repair so I sent all my broken harps to him. He did a great job. But he didn't really like the international work and when I broke my C crossover again through clumsy (a different kind of clumsy this time...trying to realign a reed using a dessert fork as reed wrench...so clumsy plus stupid) I was up a stump.
I decided I had to learn to fix my own, so I bought a Seydel tool kit at great expense and repaired my harp. What a great feeling!
After a couple weeks I realised the new reed didn't perform quite as well as the others so I set about investigation of why that was and I successfully addressed it and a lady sent me a dozen broken sp20s to play with and I mended all my broken harps and learned lots about setting them up and after a while MP sent a customer my way and that all went well and now here I am with 15 clients and 200+ repairs chalked up
So I don't buy many new harps, but I do get a few and some used ones and now have over 50 personal harps.
I can tell you that I don't break harps anymore, and I have possibly learned just as much about playing harmonicas by repairing them as I have from playing them..what I mean is that you can't repair a harp or set up a harp to play well if you can't play it reasonably well. How can you check the octave splits are in tune if you can't play them accurately, for instance? How can you be confident the blow bends are easy to hit if you can't hit them? Is the 6 overblow there? Who knows if you can't play an overblow?
So I had to learn all those techniques and really focus on whether the problem was me or the harp...
So, for me, learning to tune, repair and setup harps to play well has made me a much better player in terms of technique/skill. And made me more conscious and appreciative of the relative merits of the playing I hear.
What this means for maintenance of my own harps is that I've become quite picky. I can still play them if they're not at optimum setup, but they bug me and I'll find another that works better. I have two from Joe Spiers and now pretty much have an intolerable situation where my harp which I'm playing has to be as good as a Spiers stage 2 marine band...that leaves some big holes in my kit...but I'm also gratified to pick up a couple of my harps and know they are pretty bloody good harps and harps i have from other 'customisers' which I think need a little work.
I'm not a customiser for anyone but myself. What I do for others I would not grace with the term.
But yeah...maintenance for me is set up the harp as well as I know how. If it's not up to scratch I'll keep onto it until it stops annoying me.
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Fil
82 posts
Dec 18, 2015
2:41 PM
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Maybe a couple of times a year I take the four or so keys I play most often and take apart, clean any built up stuff on the covers, combs and plates carefully with alcohol and q-tips mostly. I have had to do some minimal gapping when a reed chokes, but I play'em as I get them for the most part. I play gently, I think, so seem to get a lot of life out of the harps. Working on tongue-blocking is pretty wet, so may have to up the schedule until I get better at that. I will say that any I open up rarely seem to actually need cleaning. And the more I play and improve (or think I improve), the less I want to replace play time with cleaning time.
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Phil Pennington
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Glass Harp Full
72 posts
Dec 18, 2015
4:46 PM
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I tap them out and wipe them down with a lint free cloth (the ones for cleaning glasses) after I finish playing.
If they don't sound right I take them apart and wash them with tap water. That usually solves it.
I had a bad experience with a cheap harp: took it apart, tried gapping then it wouldn't play again when I put it back together. I decided not to do anything other than cleaning on my better harps after that.
I remember seeing a David Barrett video where he said you have to see harps as disposable instruments, and unless you want to spend a lot of time learning about repairing you're better off buying a new harp when they break. I have a lot of respect for those who can repair, but at this stage of my harp journey it makes more sense for me to spend time practicing than learning about repairing. I may revisit it in future though.
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Ian
183 posts
Dec 18, 2015
6:16 PM
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Personally, I was pretty bad. I havnt cleaned or maintained my harps much at all really. Occasionally I would wash one under a tap if I knew I had been playing after eating or something... But other than that they didn't receive much attention.
Until recently that is, as I found a few of my harps top ends were squealing a bit. After a clean and a bit of a gap they have found their groove again.
@rontana out of interest can you point the towards the videos you mentioned re Joe spiers.? ... Can't find them.
Last Edited by Ian on Dec 18, 2015 6:38 PM
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SuperBee
3099 posts
Dec 18, 2015
8:44 PM
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yep, Dave has said he treats them as disposable. I think hohner pays him to say that.
(The late) Richard Farrell said if you couldn't repair, you couldn't afford to play.
if I'd been able to find someone like mp in Australia I'd probably have sent them for repair and not undertaken to learn diy.
There's a lady I repair for...she takes it pretty seriously...she will be representing her club in Memphis next month at the IBC events...I've done 30 repairs for her in 12 months...if she had treated her harps as disposable she would be a couple grand in the stink. She plays $70 harps..I charge her much less to repair...I give her bulk discount...with the change she just bought a meteor 50....lookout Memphis...
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Gary 62
102 posts
Dec 19, 2015
8:59 AM
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Superbee: Like you i use the toothbrush to scrub the reed plates. I learnt that from watching Jason Ricci in one of his videos. It's a great one where the whole video is about the cleaning regime he uses. Anyway he uses the toothbrush to scrub, fast and light, over the reeds. I haven't had any problems with snagging or anything.
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SuperBee
3102 posts
Dec 19, 2015
2:52 PM
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Yeah Gary, fast and light is the way, so youre using the ends of the bristles, not squashing them and bending them over...
Just like using a toothbrush to clean your teeth effectively I suppose.
Some folks cut the bristles short. I guess that is kinda the same thing but seems to me that we don't need a lot of pressure here, just a bit of agitation. I let them soak a bit first.
The ultrasonic cleaner btw, I'm told that suds reduce the effectiveness of the cleaner. So, if one wanted to involve detergent, probably a good plan could be to first soak plates with water and soap, then maybe a scrub with the brush, a rinse and follow up with ultrasonic. I usually combine the ultrasonic bath with a scrub too.
The stuff in the bottom of the bath usually convinces me it was worth doing. Especially if there has been tuning going on beforehand.
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