Fudbutter
5 posts
Jan 31, 2020
8:54 PM
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Just musing
Do people do this anymore? Anyone remember doing it?
Back in the day (early 70's), when you got a new harp, probably a Hohner Blues Harp for only a few bucks, the first thing one did when you came home was unwrap the package and dump the harp in a glass of water and leave it overnight. It was supposed it make it sound better. It was a common thing to do and I have no idea where that came from.
I haven't thought about doing this in years and no way am I doing it now considering the price of these things. It seems silly, but I am curious if anyone remembers doing this or if anyone STILL does it. If so, did it really make a difference?
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SuperBee
6459 posts
Jan 31, 2020
9:15 PM
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Tony Glover advocated doing it.
Neil Young did it when the cameras were rolling.
Adam Gussow did it and claims it helped him get the whammer Jammer note
Lots of people did it and I’ve got no idea how it was supposed to help.
Well, ok, maybe that’s not quite true. Obviously it made the comb swell. And I guess it put some water in the gaps. I dunno why it’d help hit a 10 blow bend, or rather why it’s the difference between hitting it and missing.
I don’t expect Glover made it up though so it must have been a practice prior to publication of the book.
I’ve never done it.
If it swelled the comb I can see that could potentially make for a better seal. It also probably pushed the plates against the nail heads and then if the comb dried out the plates would be a poorer fit than before, necessitating further treatment.
Also, if you think about all the complaints about swelling combs and protruding tines, just from playing with a wet mouth, how bad must it have been when people soaked harps?
Another thing, I never heard talk of sonny boys, sonny terry, Walters, et al doing this. People always speak of how great the harps were back in the day, so when and by whom did this soaking thing get started?
I hypothesized that it mainly got legs as a result of Glover’s book but plenty folks told me to shut up and that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I couldn’t deny the latter part of that remark so I took the advice part.
I said above that I’ve never done it. That’s not literally true. I have done it. I tried it. Just curious and experimenting. I never got serious about it. I had a friend who assured me “you have to soak ‘em!”
So I tried. Didn’t do anything for me.
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DanP
443 posts
Jan 31, 2020
9:44 PM
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I don't think many players soak their harmonicas anymore unless it's an old wooden comb harp in the junk drawer that's unplayable in any other condition. Even then it's only a temporary fix. Soaking does make the harp more air-tight and play louder but it causes the comb to swell and doesn't do the reeds any good either. And, of course, there is absolutely no reason to soak if the harp has a plastic or metal comb unless someone wants to ruin it. Back in the days when some of the old timers soaked their harps, I think all of the harmonica combs were made of wood and they were cheap (price wise). I should add that I'm almost positive that soaking voids any harmonica company's warranty.
Last Edited by DanP on Jan 31, 2020 11:35 PM
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Sarge
765 posts
Feb 01, 2020
4:52 AM
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I did it all the time back in the 60's. It's what you did back then. I didn't know why back then; it's just what you did.
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Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
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groyster1
3514 posts
Feb 01, 2020
6:38 AM
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the early 70s was before I bought my first harp....but Ive never ever soaked a harp in water......that's totally insane!!!!it will ruin a harp immediately
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dougharps
2060 posts
Feb 01, 2020
8:35 AM
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Back when I learned diatonic around 1970 when I couldn't afford replacing chromatics the only book out there was Tony Glover's book. Since he spoke positively of soaking, I did it for a while when playing out.
Soaking did have an immediate positive result in making it a much more responsive harp. I think it was a combination of the wood swelling and water filling leaks. Possibly it also acted like a temporary embossing, tightening tolerances in the reed slot.
However, the wood combs would swell after a little of this, the tines would stick out, and you would tear up your lips if you kept playing with protruding tines.
You could use a razor blade and cut the extended tines off so that it was level at the front of the harp.
But when the comb dried out the tines would shrink back under the reed plate and you couldn't play it when it was dry. So you had to soak it again before playing to make the tines move back out.
Eventually the nails would loosen and the harp would deteriorate from the damage. The cover nails would be the first thing to fail. I used rubber bands to hold the covers on.
Harps were viewed as throwaways back then. I wish I had saved the old plates for reed stock, but I wasn't doing that kind of thing then.
I think that harp customizers found ways to improve response that did not wreck the harmonica like soaking does.
Soaking was an idea that gave short term results and sacrificed longer term usage. After wrecking a few $3.50 harmonicas this way, I stopped soaking them.
I think soaking is a BAD IDEA, but I was an ignorant beginner back then.
If you have a leaky harp to sacrifice you could try it, but it is not anything I would recommend. Harps have improved and all of them cost too much to ruin.
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Doug S.
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jbone
3123 posts
Feb 01, 2020
9:09 AM
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There are easy alternatives these days. I opt for composite combs or sealed wood mostly. Problem solved.
I read Glover's book back when and tried soaking. Great way to destroy a harp over a fairly short time. When Sp20 came out I switched over for the most part, for years. I tried a lot of harps over the years from the 70's to the '00's. I came back toward wood combs when I made a deal with a customizer or two and got some very nice MB's. And 2 years ago I tried a MB Delux, which I found to be a very good choice for me.
I have an MB 365 which I've had for years and it has begun to warp from moisture in the comb. Not so much right now because I'm in a fairly dry area. But I'm sending it off soon to get a seal job done on the comb. If you have a raw wood comb you can easily find either an after market sealed unit, have one sealed or the comb replaced, or even seal one yourself though I don't recommend this.
Soaking back in the day was a decent option if you were needing to finish a gig maybe but today, if it destroys the instrument, it's a bad choice to me.
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.
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IaNerd
81 posts
Feb 01, 2020
10:30 AM
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In 1972 my dad noticed one of my harps sunk in a glass of water. He was a builder -- not a harp player. "That's a bad idea," he said. And he was right.
When plastic combs came out I quit wood and never looked back. I know that, these days, wood *can* be adequately sealed. But I personally don't care about the so-called "tonal benefit". The plastic of a Kongsheng Mars seems to be of especially high quality. I also like aluminum combs. Brass looks so cool but for me it's too darned heavy.
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Fudbutter
6 posts
Feb 02, 2020
7:53 AM
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I mentioned this to the Mrs. and she said. "You did what? Are you sure that the advice wasn't to soak your head instead?"
So I showed her this thread and she was quite amused. "Well," she said," I guess Emilio and the Funky Doc were right. What's hip today, might become passe". I replied, "well apparently what's hip today might just become stupid"
This was a fun read. Thanks for the replies. This is a GREAT board.
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