ElkRiverHarmonicas
594 posts
Mar 21, 2011
6:33 PM
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My grandpa got me this 270 D chromatic for Christmas when I was about 12 or 13. I had been playing diatonics for several years at that point and didn't realize there were different tunings, like solo on the chromatic. I just knew I couldn't play it, so I sat it down.
Fast forward about 15 years and mom found the chromatic in a box on the top shelf of the garage. Despite this extreme temperature storage and not being played in 15 years - the wood had to be really dry - there were no comb cracks.
This was when I had just started fooling around with harps a little and I was sealing with beeswax. I sealed it with beeswax. Over time, I got to where I didn't like beeswax at all because of how it can attract dirt, etc. and I started using polyurethane-type stuff.
The whole time I worked for HH, I didn't play any chromatics at all, I didn't have a lot of time and all my playing time was devoted to working on overblow technique.
Yesterday, I got out the old 270. It had sat, unplayed, for about eight months, including an entire winter. I didn't remember sealing it at all, I thought it was unsealed and I feared the worst, I thought for sure it had cracked over the winter.
I took the slide assembly off this evening and instead of a crack or something, the comb was perfect and beeswax sealed. Moreover, the comb was CLEAN inside. It was a thing of beauty.
So, I'm rethinking the benefits of beeswax on chromatics.
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"There are only two things money can't buy - true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Lewis Grizzard
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