zellecaster
9 posts
Oct 05, 2012
1:21 PM
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Hi, never really introduced myself so I'm Steff/Zellecaster.
Lifelong guitarist/vocalist, pretty new harmonica addict. 9 months or so, but doing well due to my music background, somewhat obsessive nature and the portability of the instrument which enables me to fit practice in all over the place. Actually getting a vocabulary on the instrument and learning a lot from this community so, THANKS.
Anyway, I have noticed two schools of thought that totally conflict and have to ask how do you PLAY OTHER PEOPLE'S HARPS. Early in my research i heard people say they never let other people play their harps, then I see quotes like "I got to play one of Brendan Power's personal Sub 30s at SPAH and...." So how does that work? You go to this convention and they let you test harps and what happens after that? I know, or rather would assume that a harp customizer has to PLAY my harp to see if he got the overblows/bends working right?
So, what's the deal folks? How does this work?
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GMaj7
102 posts
Oct 05, 2012
1:17 PM
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Steff,
At SPAH, I had disposable sani-wipes..
I also use sterisol on all harps I work on (Including yours) and then throw a wipe in the package when I ship.
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Greg Jones
16:23 Custom Harmonicas
greg@1623customharmonicas.com
1623customharmonicas.com
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HarveyHarp
374 posts
Oct 05, 2012
1:36 PM
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When I get a person's harp in, the very first thing that happens is that I scrub it down with Bar Keepers Friend. If it has a wooden comb, I very lightly flat sand the comb, and then I use Howards Butcher Block conditioner all over the harp. I put it in a tin cup, and heat it with a hair dryer and then brush it on, and let it dry until I finish any reed work. It consists of Mineral oil, beeswax, and carnumb wax.
I put it back together, and then after everything is the way I want it, tuning and everything, It gets 9 minutes in my ultrasonic machine to further clean it, get all the little sanding bits out, and help the reeds settle. Then I rinse it in water, dry it, and plink all the reeds to make sure they have not been jarred, and visually inspect the gaps, and centering. I then put it together and ship.
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HarveyHarp
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zellecaster
10 posts
Oct 05, 2012
1:59 PM
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Thanks guys.
Greg,
So, do you spray the Sterisol into the harp? Because internally is where I would worry about collection of stuff at a convention. The wipes get rid of external issues, but considering we are blowing and drawing into/out of the harp....
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jbone
1066 posts
Oct 05, 2012
7:28 PM
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i can count on one hand the times i've used someone else's harp. never have bought one used. and something else i try to keep in mind is, if i play when i'm sick, it's very soon time to sanitize again, and by that i mean disassemble and wash with alcohol, the strong stuff. i can potentially re-infect my own self and did just that a time or two early on.
this attitude has spread to microphones for me as well. where it's convenient i will bring my own vocal mic. sometimes i just have to risk it and sing through a house mic. i always use my own harp mic.
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CarlA
132 posts
Oct 05, 2012
8:31 PM
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@jbone
Remember antibodies!?! Can't reinfect yourself with the same cold/flu strain!
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robbert
142 posts
Oct 05, 2012
9:23 PM
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Well...I would never want to use someone else's harps, or ever allow someone else to use my instruments.
Getting old harps to rebuild is okay, as you can sanitize them in the process, or getting a harp from a customizer seems fine as they sanitize their products, or you can, upon receiving them.
These days, I tap the harp out after use and wipe it with a soft cloth. Once and a while, I'll scrub the mouthpiece with a little soap and water and one of my old tooth brushes. I don't mind rinsing a diatonic under the tap, either, as long as it can dry quickly near a heater or during warm Summer months.
I never rinse anything with wind-savers in water. I'll clean the mouthpiece, but not the reed plates, unless I'm replacing all the wind-savers, of course.
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Noodles
349 posts
Oct 05, 2012
10:32 PM
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Besides the obvious risks of sharing harps, here's one more thought.
The simple act of someone else just holding your harp in his/r hands poses a potential risk. You never know what's really on their hands. They touch your harp and transfer it to the comb or cover plates. Then you wrap your lips around it.
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Gnarly
343 posts
Oct 06, 2012
3:21 AM
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I am the guy who posted that he played Bren's SUB 30--
He offered, I accepted.
I'm not a real germophobe, usually I wipe 'em off when I'm done LOL
And yeah, being a repair guy, I do a better job because I know how the harp is supposed to play.
(I am the Suzuki USA repair guy)
Last Edited by on Oct 06, 2012 3:24 AM
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andysheep8
23 posts
Oct 06, 2012
3:25 AM
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An ignorant guitarist once picked up a harp of mine and started wailing on it. He asked how come he couldn't make it sound right. I explained that it hadn't quite dried out from the process of being soaked in my own urine, his face was a joy to behold.
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Steamrollin Stan
586 posts
Oct 06, 2012
6:13 AM
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I could not imagine using someone else's harp, like effing gee whizzzzzz, its got all thier spit and gunk inside, may as well chew on thier hanky full of snot, far out!!
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GMaj7
103 posts
Oct 06, 2012
6:50 AM
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Sterisol gets sprayed inside the harp and then I wait about 1 minute and rinse.
At SPAH well.. can't really do that so I guess in some form or fashion I am now related/connected to about 500 other players...
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Greg Jones
16:23 Custom Harmonicas
greg@1623customharmonicas.com
1623customharmonicas.com
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groyster1
2034 posts
Oct 06, 2012
8:49 AM
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dont allow it period...but dont be too concerned about your own harps,after all,you cannot be infected with your own germs.....the human mouth has FAR more germs than a dog or cat and this has been proven
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garry
279 posts
Oct 06, 2012
1:00 PM
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i don't let dogs or cats play my harps, either.
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FMWoodeye
466 posts
Oct 06, 2012
1:14 PM
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If an 18-year-old female named Bambi offers to let me play her harp, I will do so without hesitation. If one of YOU nasty bastards makes a similar offer...well, I would have to politely decline.
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florida-trader
189 posts
Oct 06, 2012
2:21 PM
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You’re at SPAH with a couple hundred serious harp players – many of which are the top players on the planet. Everyone has 20-30 of their favorite harps with them - custom jobs with all the bells and whistles. In addition Hohner, Seydel and Suzuki have their latest toys on display with an army of techs to make sure they are in perfect playing condition. You have four days to test and sample some of the best playing harmonicas in the world. Aside from trying out different brands and models you have the opportunity to compare harps set up by different customizers. You have overblow harps, valved harps and 30 reed harps. They are all there for the asking.
So here are your options. You can take the position of “I don’t play used harps or someone else’s harps (or let anybody else play mine)” or you can dive in and get more feedback, more information about which harps suit your personal preference or which customizer’s harps you like best in four days than you would get in five years. In my opinion, if you take the first route you are missing out. Furthermore you are resigning yourself to a position of not knowing how a particular harmonica plays until after you have paid for it and own it. It’s kinda like buying a car without test driving it. Not exactly and apples to apples comparison but close.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
Last Edited by on Oct 06, 2012 2:21 PM
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nacoran
6126 posts
Oct 06, 2012
3:08 PM
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I hear that's why old-schoolers drank whiskey. Everyone wanted to play like Sonny Boy, but no one wanted to catch his mouth cooties. Whiskey kills the germs!
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Nate
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groyster1
2035 posts
Oct 06, 2012
3:58 PM
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sonny boy had the consumption not so sure whiskey could have warded that off...and he died before INH was available....what tom says is very true tho,you cannot test drive harps,you have to buy them first....luckily for me,I have a ton of harps,hohners,5 suzukis,4 lee oskars and hohner is the best of the lot
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Gnarly
344 posts
Oct 06, 2012
6:45 PM
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Are you guys really telling me that if BRENDAN POWER offered to let you try his custom constructed personal 30 reed Suzuki UltraBend that you would decline?
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HarpNinja
2733 posts
Oct 06, 2012
7:14 PM
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I've played Brendan's custom SUB's...(edit) and he suggested I try them.
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Mike
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Last Edited by on Oct 06, 2012 7:16 PM
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kudzurunner
3566 posts
Oct 06, 2012
8:53 PM
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I'm amazed by this whole discussion. It may surprise, distrube, and even nauseate you youngsters--and you fastidious oldsters--but in the late 1970s, when I was first learning how to play, people passed harps back and forth. It wasn't a big deal. In fact, if you were jamming on your harp in a public place, like a festival or a rock show indoors or outdoors, and somebody said, "Hey, lemme see that, I'll show you something," it was considered bad form NOT to hand the person your harp and let them show you.
I'm not making this up. I'm sure that WalterTore and BBQ Bob will second me on this.
I realize that AIDS came along in the mid-80s and changed a lot. But what goes on at SPAH is much more like what I remember from the old days.
I think people are a little too fastidious about such things. I rarely let people play my harps, but I never clean my harps--literally never wash them, sterilize them, sanitize them, or wipe them down, beyond wiping them on my jeans every now and then. And I rarely get colds and almost never get the flu or other serious diseases.
I must have shaken hands with 65 of the 70 players who attended the clinic in San Jose--my sweaty hands against theirs--and then I played my harps and they played theirs. We surely traded a few germs. One of the surest ways of keeping your immune system in shape is to subject it to a continued low-level barrage of the sort that accosts you when you shake that many hands and trade a little spit.
People are too fastidious. It makes better medical sense not to be--and definitely not to worry about it. It's the stress created by all that worry that weakens your immune system.
Last Edited by on Oct 06, 2012 8:54 PM
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Gnarly
345 posts
Oct 06, 2012
10:09 PM
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@ Kudzu all true--but I am kinda hoping Bambi shows up anyway . . .
As far as working on other people's harps, the first thing I do is to dunk 'em in really hot water and wipe them down, make sure they look clean--wood combs, I just use a toothbrush on usually . . .
Some people sterilize their harmonicas, that's swell, but I don't do it.
We work on harps under magnification, but if it was too high, I bet we wouldn't put 'em in our mouths . . .
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nacoran
6128 posts
Oct 07, 2012
12:16 AM
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Careful Gnarly, Buzedero, I think it was, had a story about a stripper and a harmonica and he says he never played that harp again!
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Nate
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Steamrollin Stan
587 posts
Oct 07, 2012
2:43 AM
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So if i had garlic prawns (shrimp) and a shitload of dim sims washed down with 6 beers and a cuban cigar, you think this is ok.......NOT !!....lol.
Not to mention the fact that my teeth ain't been brushed for 3 days, yep, share a harp and run the risk of being infected with some poxy thing and wonder...wtf happened??
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groyster1
2037 posts
Oct 07, 2012
2:37 AM
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as adam does not do and neither do I never clean my harps,only slap them on my palm to get the moisture out...you cannot get infected by your own germs....but you can from another person,for sure...so I would rather not let someone play my harps
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loscott
26 posts
Oct 07, 2012
10:15 AM
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Last spring, I was at a graduate student conference at Columbia, which ended with a pretty swanky reception that included a jazz quintet for which one of the Columbia students plays flute. He’s a gregarious, charismatic guy and we had been talking earlier in the evening. He asked me if I played music, and I told him I played harmonica. In the middle of their set, he and one of his professors, who happens to have known me since I was born, begin coaxing me to get up there and blow some harp. This is not something I was expecting. I do my best to decline, but they persist. I finally say, “I don’t even have a harmonica,” to which my new friend responds by whipping out of his backpack a rusty, dusty G harp (no case or anything). By this point I had imbibed my fair share and was feeling a little bolder.
To be honest, even though the guy was getting over a cough, germs were the least of my concerns. I was more worried that I would embarrass myself with intoxicated harmonica playing in front of a group of fellow graduate students and faculty members, including keynote speakers Joseph Farrell and Leonard Barkan (big names in classics and comparative literature). It actually went surprisingly well, and I got a good reception from the crowd.
That’s my playing someone else’s harmonica story. Nothing terrible happened. I didn’t get sick or make a fool of myself in front of famous academics. That said, I think I will try to avoid similar adventures in the future.
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BronzeWailer
801 posts
Oct 07, 2012
4:06 PM
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Wholeheartedly agree with kudzurunner here.
I have no problem sharing harps. I have lent mine out a couple of times, and borrowed another guy's harp (never met him before) when I sat in with his band. No apparent ill effects.
Germs are everywhere.
We all probably eat at restaurants from time to time. As for Bambi, there is a strong likelihood that she has a lot more germs than the average stranger, if my image of her is akin to what is in FM Woddeye's imagination, and she has a habit of letting strange men suck on her harp. Speaking of germs, don't forget hotel-room remote controls.
These sanitized handwashing gels that are everywhere are probably doing more harm than good. The only time I will use it is when visiting/leaving someone in hospital.
Just sayin'...
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CarlA
134 posts
Oct 07, 2012
4:33 PM
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Back when penicillin was first discovered, alot of you old codgers shared harps. Since then, things like the combustion engine, electricity, indoor plumbing, and paved roads have improved our civilization.
The "old school" mentality is fine if your into it. Truth is you can blow through hundreds of strangers harps and be fine. For me it's more about the principle. I see no reason to share bodily fluids(ie:saliva) by using someone else's harp. Bring your harps if you think you may need them.
Personally, there must be a valid reason why music stores SEAL all harps and have a very strict no return policy, unless it's through the manufacturer.
For me personally, blowing out of someone else's harp is downright nasty. Just my 2cents
-Carl
And yes, there are a multitude of illnesses that can be transfers through the oral route. Hepatitis is just one of the possible gifts. Just sayin..,
Last Edited by on Oct 07, 2012 4:34 PM
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MP
2493 posts
Oct 07, 2012
4:40 PM
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i keep a spray bottle of 91% alcohol. that does the trick. but then again, i'm not a germaphobe.
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MP
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CarlA
135 posts
Oct 07, 2012
5:11 PM
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This guy is coming to your next blues jam. Unfortunately, he forgot his harps. Fortunately, we have many fellow board members at MBH that would be elated to share their harps with him. Its all good!!
Last Edited by on Oct 07, 2012 5:21 PM
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groyster1
2040 posts
Oct 07, 2012
5:31 PM
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the jury should be unaminous...but maybe not....as far as Im concerned,blow your own effin harp......
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kudzurunner
3567 posts
Oct 07, 2012
5:52 PM
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CarlA: That's funny! Obviously we used discretion in the old days; anybody with that sort of mouth is somebody who wouldn't have gotten near my harp.
These days, I only rarely let other players use my harps, or use other players' harps, but it occasionally happens. Most often I'll let somebody use a second or third string harp--when I've got three or four C harps, I don't mind digging #3 or #4 out of the bottom of my case in an emergency and letting somebody--a fellow player, not anybody who just walks up--use it. The next time I'm liable to use it will be several months down the line and I'm not worried about dormant germs.
Again, I'll stress an underlying principle here that seems to have been missed: If you make an OCD point of avoiding any and every situation in which bodily fluids might be exchanged, it leads to madness and sickness. Our immune systems function more reliably if they encounter challenges, as long as they're not huge challenges. If you spend your days in a sterile environment, for example, you critically weaken your immune system. It's good to have some contact with dirt. I would have thought that blues harmonica players knew that. The reductio ad absurdum--the photo of the syphilitic mouth above--is easy and fun, but it misses this basic and irrefutable point.
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Jim Rumbaugh
797 posts
Oct 07, 2012
8:01 PM
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I'll play someone else's harp.
Someone else can play my harp.
I don't wory too much about germs.
I don't smoke or drink.
I wouldn't refuse to kiss a girl.
I would refuse to kiss a guy.
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theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1318 posts
Oct 07, 2012
9:01 PM
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For probably the first 25 years of my harp playing, I never considered it. The only harp player I knew was my dad and he didn't want me playing his harps, I had to get my own. I was in band, and we never said "hey, lemme play your saxophone." You just played your own saxophone, it never occurred to play anybody elses.
The first harmonica player I ever got to sit with and check out harps was Jason Ricci - I was a newspaper reporter doing a story on Jason. He had some santizer that you sprayed in the harp. He let me play them all, Filisko, Harrison, Spiers, some he'd customized himself - there was, I'm pretty sure it was at that first meeting, that I played the B-radical prototype, thinking it was cool, but having no idea I'd later be riding that flaming B-radical zeppelin to the ground. That was the first time I'd ever played anybody else's harmonica. I was glad for that, because Jason opened up a new world for me that day, plus he showed me for the first time I'd seen it done, how to emboss and gap for overblows, etc.
There were harmonicas traded back and forth the whole time I was at SPAH 2010. Now, many, many of us came back with a nasty, nasty cold or flu or something. I was sick for weeks, so were a lot of other folks and that got me thinking in the other direction.
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
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groyster1
2041 posts
Oct 08, 2012
4:41 AM
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the best household disinfectant is vinegar,not as strong as bleach but not as toxic....if someone else plays your harps,try vinegar
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The Gloth
688 posts
Oct 08, 2012
6:09 AM
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One time, a dog licked the back of my harp while I was playing it (maybe in an attempt to shut it down). I was drunk, so it didn't bother me.
But usually I don't let other people play my harps, and I don't play theirs. It's not so much by fear of germs than fear that they could break it by playing unproperly. I can perfectly spoil my harps myself without help from someone else.
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Jaybird
281 posts
Oct 08, 2012
2:38 PM
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I am pretty grossed out about the idea of sharing harmonicas, and won't do it.
But somehow, I'm OK with passing a pipe around.
Last Edited by on Oct 08, 2012 2:40 PM
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Martin
146 posts
Oct 08, 2012
4:00 PM
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You guys who "never" play other people´s harps, or let them play yours -- do you kiss girls, or boys, if that should seem like an appropriate action? The contamination hazard must be exponentially higher in that context.
Or do you first spray her/him with a healthy dose of Sterisol, hoping that this will induce a romantic atmosphere, and if not, you decline?
First thing that struck me when I was living in the US was this obsession with "germs" and various strange products that were supposed to kill them. You know, normally people have a functioning immune system; I kissed a girl, a complete stranger, this Saturday night and it was just fine. In fact, I recommend it.
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Buzadero
1004 posts
Oct 08, 2012
5:23 PM
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I've never really looked at it as a rule either way. When I was first getting heavy into harp and playing with others, I lived in "The South". Every so often you'd run across a person who was someone you could learn something from. Hell yes, they could use my harp. Later, grabby bastards like Ricci, Michaelek and Peloquin snap up and play in a heartbeat. Even if it did bother you you'd have to be fast to protest. Far from a 'germaphobe' (I've shared dope pipes, diving helmets, whiskey bottles, and god-knows what else) I tend to take it case-by-case. If Skankmouth in that photo posted above wants to borrow a harp, he can get stuffed. If Bambi wants to, we'll evaluate on the fly. However, as Nate alluded to, if she happens to be on stage and naked....I ain't falling for that one again.
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~Buzadero
Underwater Janitor, Patriot
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1321 posts
Oct 08, 2012
5:30 PM
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As you have described, Martin. Some things are worth the risk.
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
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