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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Why I hate wax/nail polish
Why I hate wax/nail polish
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HarpNinja
1588 posts
Aug 18, 2011
7:06 PM
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In the last month, I've been sent 5 Buddha harps to "fix". All had issued with what the owners referred to as "notes chocking" or "broken reeds".
While I did replace one broken reed, the issue with all of them is wax and or polish getting stuck in the reeds. It is a huge PIA to work around and fix, but doesn't ruin the harps or reeds.
While stopping short of saying that it is wrong to use this method, I highly recommend that those who do keep some shims nearby and maybe a toothbrush.
In my experimenting with the best way to clean these harps, using the shim to start to dislodge the gunk and then rinsing them in water while using a toothbrush seems to help. The problem is that it is just as likely to get stuck again. You can take it much further to actually remove the material, etc, but that's your call.
If you're a hobbiest and using these substances to stop squeals, I'd suggest making sure the reed pad is flat and in complete contact with the reed plate. I owe people a video on high end harmonica first, but will try to do a demo of that too.
In full disclosure, there is a lot more to making a great harp that can overbend without squealing, and the key of harp will impact the technique used, but many times, squealing happens for the following reasons:
1. Bad profiles
2. Slot isn't fully embossed
3. Rivet isn't sitting on the pad right
Most the time, IMO, when people are adding wax/polish to the rivet pad, it is because it is faster/less technically inclined than taking the time to adjust the profile, emboss the rivet end of the slot, and secure the pad to the reedplate.
Mike, why not spill the beans and give the total play-by-play, give it all away, blah, blah, blah???
Because if you aren't to the point of getting our profiles right, don't full slot emboss, and don't check the reed pads, the other stuff doesn't mean sh!t. Sorry to sound cross, but my patience for explaining advanced techniques to those who should be worried about the fundamentals is zero.
I am not like that about other topics, but the custom stuff I am. FWIW, I set up a C GM to overblow/draw with sustainable bends without doing anything other than the reed profiles and making sure the reedpads were in order. I didn't even really need to tune when I was done. I was within 3-5 cents on every reed - but I fully admit to not checking the tuning beforehand, for all I know it was way off and my tinkering flattened things to the right pitch, or whatever.
On record I've stated a few times that embossing is over rated and I continue to believe it is NOT the end all is is sometimes made out to be. However, some of the collateral damage of embossing does make a big difference.
In summary, use wax/polish if you want, but it creates issues over time that not using them don't. If you are using it for the overbends, essentially to dampen reeds, there are other ways of doing that that don't take much time and are probably faster.
I am not hating on what Chris was using, although it probably sounds like I am. There are some famous customizers using wax/polish and that is fine. I just don't like using it and think it is worth nothing, that like with everything, there are a number of means to the end.
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Mike
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas
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Todd Parrott
639 posts
Aug 18, 2011
7:24 PM
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I've had pretty good luck with nail polish for overdraws, but not with other things. Of course, I'm no customizer.
This was discussed in a previous thread:
Nail Poish & Chapstick
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BlueDoc
55 posts
Aug 18, 2011
10:29 PM
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What would happen if you used a soldering iron to put a small bit of solder on the rivet/rivet pad? Would that eliminate the squealing without gumming up the reeds? I'm not a customizer, but I'm just curious whether anyone has tried this.
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boris_plotnikov
582 posts
Aug 19, 2011
1:34 AM
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I work on my harps for 4 years and I tried to avoid using wax, but actually wax really helps to get stable overdraw for reeds wider than hohners. Most of my 1847 have wax on 7, 9, 10 (one of them or all three depends of how lucky I'm). I apply it only if all arcing and embossing don't help.
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Excuse my bad English. Click on my photo or my username for my music.
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