Georgia Blues
56 posts
Jun 20, 2013
7:30 AM
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This site is great for all kinds of reasons.... OK, after reading a bunch of stuff here and elsewhere, I just took a crack at dismantling and cleaning some old Golden Melodies. I followed Jason Ricci's system except that I used Brasso on the reed plates. Man what a difference. Like new, maybe better. I may never throw a harp away again. Just got the gear to drill and tap the brad holes from McMaster-Carr so a whole box full of old nailed up harps are starting to look promising.
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Alex
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florida-trader
321 posts
Jun 20, 2013
8:50 AM
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Alex. You are about to get sucked into the world of harmonica repair and restoration. Enter with caution! First it starts with cleaning, then replacing nails with screws, gapping, embossing, then it will be reed replacement, then alternate tunings and on and on. Along the way you will buy tools you never knew existed. Don’t let me scare you. Come on in – the water’s fine.
That Jason Mongoose Free Cleaning video (whatever the heck "Mongoose Free" is) impacted me a few years ago. I was amazed at how aggressive you can be with a tooth brush without doing damage to the reed plates. One suggestion you might consider. I use BarKeeper’s Friend instead of Brasso. It is available in most grocery stores for about $3.00 a bottle. Both work better than the Purple Kaboom Jason uses in his video.
There are a lot of tips and tricks that you will learn as you go. There’s a ton of info on YouTube and in the archives here so I won’t go into it now. But one thing that I hope we can agree on is – it’s a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. A lot of guys are afraid to open up a harp and tinker with the insides. I was one of those guys. But if you’re going to be a harp player, in my opinion, it behooves you to learn some basic skills. It will keep your harps playing longer and better. Welcome to the club!
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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Georgia Blues
57 posts
Jun 20, 2013
9:07 AM
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Indeed Tom. I was concerned at one point about removing too much material and changing the pitch or playability. I talked to silver smith friend who told me that tarnish layer is about one atom thick and you have to polish it for six months to remove an appreciable amount of metal. No fear since then.
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Alex
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arzajac
1082 posts
Jun 20, 2013
9:31 AM
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Hi Alex.
Actually, I stopped cleaning harps to a shine because I noticed a dramatic depreciation in how they played. I could get them to look brand new but they would almost always end up squealing when bent or overbent or even turn out so as to sounding like a kazoo and playing like mush. Those products (Brasso, Barkeeper's friend, Kaboom, CLR, etc...) are all very hard on brass. Especially the softer brass that vintage harps are made of.
I've used all the harps that I supercleaned as donor reed harps.
There's a Richard Sleigh video where he uses a toothbrush with a home made mixture of diatomaceous earth and orange oil to clean some reedplates. It does shine them up but I noticed how gently he was stroking the plates with the toothbrush. It made abig difference but they didn't end up looking brand new -just clean.
When I backed off and ignored the tarnish, I was able to enjoy the warm sound and great response of vintage harps again.
I clean the debris (and other unwelcome material) from the reedplate using soap and water. I don't care how anything under the coverplate looks. As for the outside of the coverplate, you can polish the front edges of the reedplates with very fine grit sandpaper. When you look at the harp from the front, it looks brand new. And it feels smooth on your lips and tongue. That's about as aggressive as I get.
But my emphasis when working on a vintage harp is on performance and response, not how it looks.
My two cents...
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Georgia Blues
58 posts
Jun 20, 2013
10:00 AM
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Thanks Arz, food for thought for sure. I have NEVER pulled these apart before so I'm a bit drunk with the process. I can see how this could easily be overdone, as you suggest.
A
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Alex
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