did not know todd did that kind of work...did you ever think of going to wood combs for GMs?I have changed several sp20s to the hetrick combs...;the bamboos are the best
For the record, I am not really a harp customizer at all. :) I only did some light work to this harp and tuned it at no charge for Duane because he is a friend, and a very nice guy.
i have Mahogany an Ebony wood on two of my GMs. they're great! i'm mostly a fan of dymonwood. don't care for metals,acrylics,or even the corian.
corian is fragile. i dropped one the other day and it broke into four pieces. i had to buy the customer a new one. sure, you can glue corian back together and i did that. but, the structural integrity goes out the window. once corian is installed you just have to watch out not to scratch it. i do know the secret to polishing corian but i'm sworn to secrecy. ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
does hohner not hear about complaints of GM combs?the sp20 combs are pretty bland looking but think they go a long way in giving the sp20s that air tightness...
I've dropped Corian combs on my hardwood floors and never broken one. I've lost only one to breakage while being a little rough during polishing. I've broken many dymondwood combs, so to me that makes them more fragile. ---------- Spiers Harmonicas
Last Edited by on Sep 02, 2012 7:12 PM
You can get rid of the dymonwood smell without painting or lacquering. I agree that Corian is hard to break compared to other materials. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
I love that fantasy marble stuff that Chris Reynolds offers, and the micarta. A knife maker recently gave me some really wild colors of fantasy marble which I hope to have combs machined from.
I like Bamboo out of all of them! It's wierd because the one harp that is made with bamboo I HATE! I hate the tone of crossovers! Now I can put a Bamboo comb on a SP 20 and it's a dramatic improvement? Same with Golden Melodies.
Last Edited by on Sep 02, 2012 3:43 PM
I said that about Corian? I think acrlic is cheap looking...I think unfinished Corian is cheap looking too. Polished Corian looks great. It depends on the builder, etc.
Corian will break if you throw it against a wall, fwiw. I had heard it was fragile, but actually tested that theory. It can crack, etc, but I wouldn't say it is likely to happen unless it was with unreasonable force.
I agreed with your comments on Corian and just added that dymonwood doesn't have to smell. Not much of an issue...
I give customers the choice of materials and recommen going by look rather than material as, if they are done right, it makes little difference.
***EDIT
I tried to search the forum for any comments I may have made about Corian, and can't find anything where I referred to it as overly fragile, brittle, cheap, etc. In fact, I found comments I made about it being higher quality, etc, than regular acrylic some time ago - before the boom in using Corian for combs. I did have a post about the safety of the material as I was trying to learn more about it.
There are posts on Harp-L where players other than myself have mentioned breaking Corian combs easily. However, I can't confirm whether or not it was really Corian or anything else. Again, having tested its strength, I doubt it is any more fragile than things like dymonwood. I did manage to break a Corian comb by throwing it against a wall (drywall) - I've never been clocked throwing a baseball faster than 76mph, so I doubt it was with a crazy level of velocity.
I do think that unpolished combs look cheaper than polished. I personally prefer a matte finish to a lacquered one (and have asked that the Sjoeberg combs I receive in the future not be lacquered), but have learned how to polish dymonwood, Corian, and stock SP20 combs (so they look a lot like Corian) to make them look better. I've tried acrylic combs, and unless they are well sanded/polished, they can look a bit cheap too. This is not a statement on its strength for efficiency...just an opinion on comb appearance.
Oddly enough, my favorite comb material is bamboo, which is sometimes lacquered. I like it for the look and feel. I do think it is harder to keep clean looking then Corian, which is very easy to clean even compared to dymonwood. I don't like other woods. They are had to keep clean, are still prone to swelling, and I swear I hear a difference. That doesn't mean I don't use them on my own harps. The only wood I try to use with customs is bamboo, but I am usually pretty direct about Corian being easier to clean.
You can do things to eliminate the smell of dymonwood other than lacquering. My only reservation with dymonwood and other composite woods - which I am fairly certain every major comb maker and customizer has used at least at some point - are related to safety, namely as it pertains to inhaling and ingesting the dust that can result from sanding it. Heck, Corian, acrylic, and dymonwood are all bad things to eat...
If I am missing some post where I spoke negatively about Corian, I apologize. While I should be aloud to change my opinion on things, and I know for sure others on this board have, I probably wasn't the most reliable source a year or so ago on if Corian was right for others or not. The only issue I would have with it right now is the marketing piece - that all Corian is, in fact, actual Corian, and that it is maintenance free. I believe I am entitled to that opinion based on actual experience. I have some Corian combs on my harps...and dymonwood and pearwood and bamboo.
I broke a corian comb the other day, peeling it off the block that I flat sand with. The tape stuck too good, and since I had never broken one before, I did not treat it gently. My bad.
The only comb that I break really easy are the stock Hohner combs on MS Blues Harps. They are really touchy. Everything else is good. IMHO ----------
