Why dip harmonica in water

This process works for diatonic, tremolo and octave harps. Chromatics are slightly more involved, so these will be covered in a separate post. Registered Company Saturday 13th November: All orders are being dispatched as normal! The Special 20 is plastic, the other one is wood. Plastic is brighter, wood is warmer. So I went with what they had, the Marine Band.

And I love it. It does have a warmer tone, which sounds great. I also bought a harmonica neck holder. Which I'm still getting the hang of. But I'm happy with my purchase. Hohner Marine Bands have been pretty much the industry standards for the folk and blues players I have known for half a century. However, there's a definite "shelf life" to harmonicas, just like guitar strings. Depending on how much you play, how hard you play, how you "bend" notes and what you do to facilitate it like soaking your harmonicas in hot water, vodka or gin , this tends to lessen the longevity of your harmonicas.

They're not going to last more than 6 or 7 months in any case. Chicago Sandy. Find all posts by Chicago Sandy. The Hohner Piedmont Blues Set harmonicas are pretty much beginners instruments and don't approach the quality in Hohner's higher-end harps. If you want a pro-quality harmonica that will give you the best longevity I would recommend Hohner's Marine Band Deluxe.

A great harp but not cheap. I've used Hohner's regular Marine Band and Blues harps over the years. Second on the Marine Bands. I've used them for years. If you don't mind fudging one up a bit, dip it in water.

The water will make the wooden block swell, and the resultant sound is wonderful and seems fatter. I got the idea after seeing Neil Young dip his into a bucket of water he kept on stage. Of course, when it dries out, your harmonica is a bit loose until next dipping time.

I like - in order Hohner Special 20 - good Lee Oskar - better and my choice for years Seydel - expensive, but excellent. Originally Posted by BTF. I do hear a lot of good things about the marine band. I was hoping to get a set of maybe 5 different keys. But I don't think that's possible to get anything decent with my price range. I have a question about harmonicas wearing out.

Which I wasn't aware of until just recently.. As someone said, they last months. It seems just as likely to make a comb fit worse as to "fill the gaps". But if you dip the harp in solvent regularly there's a good chance it will free up the goo. I know there are old brochures that officially advocate the soak. But it's a long time since I read the official line, so long that I'm not sure I ever did. WinslowYerxa posts Jun 17, AM. The comb swelling business is very real - or was back when unsealed pearwood was the main comb wood.

All the swelling, poking, shrinkage, etc. I don't ever remember manufacturers recommending soaking. That was more a matter of player lore, as in Tony Glover's book. I started playing about three years after that book came out, and soaking to purpose was a real thing. It's worse than just swelling. The contraction afterwards when it dries leaves your harps looser. A fully sealed harp should be fine, depending on the sealant.

Plastic harps should be fine as long as you dry them out afterwards. The one I got from Turboharp will run 4 harps at once, and the cycle only takes a couple minutes. As for running water through your harps Water has a lot more mass than air and it's possible you'll mess with your reeds in bad ways, but if you are talking about running a slow tap through just to dissolve the Werther's you ate right before playing it's probably fine.

Seydel says some of their harps can go through the dishwasher. The dishwasher has powerful jets, but none of them should be running straight through the holes on your harp like a tap might. When a harp is wet, if you blow through it it will actually be a little more airtight, but only for a few seconds until you blow the water out. Like any time your harp is really airtight it might be possible to damage your harp by playing really hard.

I haven't seen that happen with water, but I think the theory is sound. The other swelling issues I have seen, and I'm not even really an old timer on harp. I've only been playing for about 10 years. I had a 7 draw on a D Manji that would not sound at a gig last night. A quick run under the tap followed by a few taps in the palm to get the water and the obstruction out, and the harp played fine.

I don't know what causes this, or how often one aspirates whatever it is that causes reeds to stick like this. A Manji comb won't swell. Aside from possible long term corrosion issues, I would agree that in such a situation a quick rinse is worth trying. I think rinsing a sealed comb harp when there is an issue is acceptable practice.

I think you get them cleaner with disassembly, but when you need it to play, you do what works at that time. I just do not agree with the "soaking" per Tony Glover's book. Soaking harps is a discredited practice. Fill it with warm water. Add a tiny bit of ammonia OR a little Sterisol Concentrate which is a brass and woodwind mouthpiece cleaner available on line and is very inexpensive. Put harps in one at a time and leave it in the ultrasonic cleaner for a couple of cycles. Then remove it and rinse thoroughly with warm water.

Tap the harp aganst a towel or your pants leg holes down to get the water out. When the water gets dirty, change it. Don't leave harps to soak in the cleaner after it stops. This won't harm any harp or any comb and it will rejuvenate your instruments. They will play better and sound better. Often locked up or jammed reeds will loosen and become playable again and your harps will usually sound more in tune.

Last Edited by hvyj on Jun 17, PM. Cotton 94 posts Jun 17, PM. I have all plastic or composite comb harps. I use a cheap ultrasonic cleaner from Harbor Frieght.