I made a couple of aluminum combs the other day--and today I got one harp put together enough to try it out. This is my first experience with a metal comb.
The result looks great--but the flavor of the aluminum is crappy!
Do people who use aluminum combs use some kind of sealer on them--or do they just lack taste buds?? ;-)
If you made them, it's possible there is still some aluminum dust on it. This is really hard to get it all out. If you have a metal taste, that's probably it. It'll probably play off once all those teeny weeny pieces of metal wear off. If it's the same taste you get when you lick a nine-volt battery (remember those, you tested them by putting your tongue on the posts) then it's natural battery action. Take two dissimilar metals.. aluminum and brass, add an acid (saliva) and you've got a little battery. Everytime I put my tongue on it, it's like licking a battery. It drives me crazy. I don't like playing aluminum at all for this reason. I love the sound. Hate the licking. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
yeah, i agree, but if you play them a while the tarnish gets rid of the issue, the promasters have them.. they are annodized so that might minimize the problem
I began offering aluminum combs last summer. Prior to getting them made I surveyed my customers to see how much demand there would be for them. Several of them advised me to make sure I had the combs anodized to eliminate potential health hazards associated with ingesting aluminum. Apparently some health care professionals believe that aluminum poses some health risks.
Without going into a lengthy scientific explanation, anodizing creates a layer of aluminum oxide on the surface of the metal, which is both more wear resistant and corrosion resistant. It is used to make dielectric films for electrolytic capacitors. All capacitors conduct alternating current (AC) and block direct current (DC). After reading this on Wikipedia, I conducted a little test. I tried running current from a AAA battery through one of my aluminum combs and found that indeed the surface of the comb does not conduct DC.
I have my combs cut at a commercial CNC Machine Shop and then anodized by a commercial anodizing company. If you have a few minutes you might like check out the video below of one of my aluminum combs being cut.
I don't mean to hijack this thread but I do have some experience in this arena. Aluminum is an easy material to work with. There is a difference between making a few for yourself in your shop vs. making them in quantity to offer them to the public. I have to make sure that they are totally safe.
I've got an aluminum comb on my Seydel. It tasted a little strange when I first got it. I don't know if it got better or I got used to it, but I don't even notice it now.
Anyway, it still tastes better than a Piedmont. The gold paint on them wears off after about a day, which is about how long it takes for them to taste tolerable. Lee Oskar manages to have harmonica combs that the markings don't rub off on. I wish Hohner could do that for their plastic covers. They actually look kind of sharp (although their tone is muted.)
There was a guy selling titanium combs but all the links to his site are dead.
Following up on the earlier comment , aluminum to brass will create 0.4 to 0.8 volts depending on exacty which alloys are involved.
I have experience this on a ProMaster where the anodization was chipped off.
If you want to prove this, place a non anodized aluminum comb and a brass reed plate in a glass of salt water or lemon juice so they are not touching each other and put a volt meter across them. You will see a voltage.
I have entertained and educated cub scouts with lemons, a volt meter and some bits of dissimalar metals. They have fun sticking the metal into the lemons to see which ones generate the most voltage.
Last Edited by on Apr 19, 2012 9:37 PM
Brass or copper would make a great comb if they don't have lead in them like some of the free machining brass alloys do. There would be no electrolytic reaction as they are very nrealy the same metal as the reed plate (unless the reed plate is steel)There are food grades of both of these material but I don't know of a source for them.
I have heard of brass combs. Has anyone tried pure copper?
I haven't heard of anyone doing pure copper. Chris Reynolds does brass and aluminum. FloridaTrader does aluminum too. There are old links to a site that's not there anymore that sold titanium combs.
Al + Cu or Al + Ni, or Al + Ch are all unwanted galvanic pairs. Meaning, they will react when exposed to an acidic substance.
The books on physics do not advise those metals to be used together. So why do harmonica makers still persist an try to use aluminum?
I feel this reaction on promasters, on seydel favorites, seydel noble, hohner meisterkalsse MS/HM, and on combs from alternative makers. Maybe I'm over-sensitive to this, but that's the reason why I can't play them.
I worked in a machine shop a few years back and wrote a milling program for aluminum combs to accommodate MS plates. I machined a run of about 40, once I had the set up, and then had them chrome plated. I was surprised at just how cheap it the plating was. If you're not in a rush, they well fit it with other things being plated. Problem solved! The combs looked cool, had round holes. The reed plates snapped inside the comb for a tight fit. You did have to be careful not to knock a tooth out when putting them up to your mouth to play!
Last Edited by on Apr 20, 2012 5:58 AM
Jim, maybe you just weren't meant to be an electric player! It's interesting. I know there are some medical and pain management techniques that involve running current through the body. Maybe it will make our lips stronger! I'm that way with chemical smells. They give me a headache. Metal smells/tastes never bothered me. I used to like to suck on the top of my coat zipper when I was a little kid. There was a metal taste that I kind of liked.
It seems that there is one metal that wouldn't do this, is very soft, very heavy.. would make a perfect comb. Only problem that metal (lead) would kill you. Gold would also make a really nice comb.
So, we're left with the other stuff.
The reason harmonica makers use aluminum, I think is this. These are scrap prices, but aluminum is 91 cents a pound. Brass is like $2.50 a pound and a brass comb is a lot heavier than aluminum. Plus, You can make a lot more combs out of pound of aluminum than a pound of brass. It's the exact same reason wood combs are historically pear in the Black Forest and beech in Saxony. It's the cheapest thing they can get that will work in each of those places.
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