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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Marine Band screws
Marine Band screws
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DeTerminator
1 post
Jun 07, 2018
6:06 PM
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Hi fellow harp blowers,
First off, what an awesome forum...Gnarly helped me out even before I was an official member. Thanks, Gary!
I recently picked up a few new Hohner Marine Band harps. I pulled the covers off of some of them to adjust the reeds, after watching some of the tuning videos available. Those little nails don't do such a good job holding things together after a few removals, so now my C harp has two nails, after one broke and I don't know what happened to the other one. Chalk that up to my first set up job, I guess.
I see that some people replace them with little screws, a good idea. Where can I get some of these, and what size are they?
Thanks,
DT
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Sloppy1
22 posts
Jun 07, 2018
6:26 PM
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Blue Moon Harmonicas and Andrew Zajac both sell screw kits.
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AppalachiaBlues
180 posts
Jun 07, 2018
11:25 PM
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Rockin Ron sells packs of reedplate screws in sizes M1.6 and M2
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Thievin' Heathen
1020 posts
Jun 08, 2018
6:05 AM
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McMaster Carr. Screws, taps, bits, files. Drill presses at Harbor Freight.
Beware. That's you ticket down the rabbit hole.
It might be more prudent to just by the full set of (pick your brand)high end harps and a screwdriver.
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dougharps
1770 posts
Jun 08, 2018
7:34 AM
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If you are a person who is into tinkering and customizing, and you plan to be doing modifications on nailed Marine Bands for years, go for it and invest the considerable money and time to get the correct tools and parts to upgrade your harps.
While you are customizing your Marine Bands, you might consider flat sanding and adding more coats of sealant to all of the comb. Last I heard, Hohner was sealing the basic Marine Band, but not necessarily as thoroughly as needed to make it last, and the comb might not be as flat as desired. You want the comb to last if you are going to do a lot of work on the rest of the harp. Some sand the reed plates and smooth the sharper edges afterward.
Personally, even though I work on harps some, I would just buy better harps that are built with screws and have combs that are well sealed. They are easy to work on and reassemble.
Oh, back in the day ('60s and '70s) when I worked on Marine bands and the original Blues Harps, and the nails would become loose, I did a halfway step: I would drill out the comb through the hole on each end of the reed plates while the plates were attached, drill the cover plates in the same spot, and put a bolt and nut on each end to help keep the harp assembly tighter. This was better putting a rubber band on each end of the harp, a fix that I used temporarily on some loose nailed harps that kept coming apart.
If you start with a better harp with a well sealed comb and machine screws holding the plates on the comb you can focus your efforts on reed work, starting with gapping and taking it as far as you want into reed profiling and tuning. That way you will not get caught up in the comb finishing and the drilling, screws/bolts & nuts assembly entanglements.
If you love to tinker, go for it. If you just want to play harps that are well adjusted and don't fall apart, buy harps already assembled with screws.
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Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Jun 08, 2018 7:36 AM
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florida-trader
1318 posts
Jun 08, 2018
9:27 AM
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Thievin' Heathen - spoken by a man who has no doubt personally met the Mad Hatter himself.
Dougharps – you are always a voice of reason.
DeTerminator -If you’re only working on one harp, you can visit your local hardware store and pick up some small screws and nuts. M2.0 X 12 is fine for metric. 1-72 or 2-56 X ¾” is fine for American Standard.
eBay is a great source for screws if you want to purchase them in quantity. They all come from China. I have bought from McMaster-Carr many times and was somewhat disappointed the last time I got some screws because they came in a package that said …………….. you guessed it – Made in China.
I offer Marine Band Conversion Kits which includes drill bits a tap and enough screws to do one Marine Band and once you have the tools, I also have just a MB Screw Kit. I don’t really have much interest in counting and packaging tiny screws, but since I make custom combs for the Marine Band I am frequently asked by customers where to find hardware. So, a couple of years ago, I just decided to make it easy for them and stock drill bits, taps and screws.
I will say, once you get the hang of converting the MB 1896 from nails to screws, it only takes a few minutes to do it right. The price difference between the MB 1896 and the Crossover, which is the only screwed version of the Marine Band available to us in the US (Hohner no longer offers the Marine Band Deluxe in the US) makes doing conversions an attractive proposition.
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Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
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DeTerminator
2 posts
Jun 08, 2018
11:30 AM
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Thanks for the replies, some good ones there.
I'll likely get some screws and nuts from the hardware store for now. Basically, it's just that one harp that needs it. Thanks for the size recommendation, florida-trader.
Funny about jumping down that rabbit hole, Thieven'Heathen! Some high end harps wouldn't be a bad idea, but down the road a bit for me. I just recently got 6 new Marine Bands! Not to mention the Suzuki Chromatic.
Have a good weekend...play happy!
Last Edited by DeTerminator on Jun 08, 2018 11:30 AM
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WinslowYerxa
1580 posts
Jun 10, 2018
9:50 AM
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The standard screw for Hohner harps is 1.6mm. If you can get those, any harp you convert will be compatible with your Crossovers, Special 20s, etc.
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