Can Harmonicocus obstruct your playing?
"Harmonicocus" is a new word in the harmonica lexicon that Barbara, my wife invented.
At the time, Barbara was working on her pre-med studies and decided to break up the day by swinging by my workshop for a visit. I had recently disassembled a customer's harmonica, with the exposed reed plates and comb spread out on my workbench. She marveled at the grotesque gunk I was scrapping off the harmonica. Apparently it reminded her of a microbiology experiment she was working on, hence the medical term Harmonicocus.
Essentially, Harmonicocus is coagulated saliva that can be found throughout the harmonica. I suspect that if players had an opportunity to view their harmonica under magnification, they would probably throw their harps into the ocean and take up the guitar instead. I heard of one case where a harmonica player had to undergo intense therapy after staring at his Harmonicocus too long.
I have had plenty of cases where the desperate player sent me their harmonica because, “all of a sudden one of the reeds locked up”!
Sound familiar? Let me hear your story …
"Play the notes that people want to hear" (c) 2008
Kinya Pollard,
The Harpsmith
After you showed me the 'stuff' you used to spray on the harps at SPAH in Sacramento, I came home and bought some Sterisol Germicide. Works great to clean up the cover and top of the comb - so thank you for the tip!!
Now you have got our attention - the germicide doesn't get inside, so what can/should be done, how often inside the harp?? Can/should the germicide be used on the plates and reeds and just wipe it off in the direction of the reeds or ?????????
Hey Hank,
Locked up reeds are almost always caused by debris stuck between the reed and reed plate slot. Often times you can dislodge the particle by carefully inserting a small paperclip (with a right angle bent into the tip), or the pointed end of a Lee Oskar plinking tool into the chamber and carefully push up on the blow reed (push down on the draw reed). If this does not help, move onto the next step:
For non-wood combs, place your harmonica into a bath of Sterisol or Roche’-Thomas “Mi-T-Mist” Mouthpiece Cleanser for five to ten minutes (depending on the concentration of your mixture). Rubbermaid or Tupperware type sandwich size containers fit nicely for diatonic harmonicas. Remove the harmonica from the bath and shake out the excess cleanser. In my shop, I use an air brush compressor to gently blow dry the harmonica. If the reed is still misbehaving, you will have to perform partial surgery.
Remove the cover plates and examine the sticking reed. If the problem is with the draw reed, you should be able to the see the foreign radical. With a small piece of aluminum foil (e.g. Reynolds Wrap), carefully slide the foil in between the reed and reed plate and “floss” out the particle.
If the problem is with a blow reed, you will have to disassemble the reed plate from the comb to access the reed. This is actually not a bad thing, because now you will be able to reach your toothbrush into the crevices of your comb and give a good flogging ;o)
"Play the notes people want to hear" (c) 2008
Kinya Pollard
The Harpsmith
A quick and dirty little trick that has worked for me many times is to simply blow the affected reed very hard and that will usually do the trick. ( I hate cleaning my harmonicas but do like clean harps)
Tony
I know Kinya has mentioned this before in an article, but it bears mentioning again. You can get an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner fairly economically these days. If you'll use it to clean plastic comb harps regularly, say once every couple weeks or whatever is appropriate for you before they get noticeably nasty, it does a good job of keeping them nice inside. One of my pro-level customers plays his Golden Melodies daily on gigs and sessions. After a year I looked them all over and touched up the tuning, and they literally looked like the day I'd first built them. He doesn't even take the covers off, just gives them a cycle in the ultrasonic and a rinse.
Harpwrench, does your friend drop the harps into the jewelry cleaner whole? This sound interesting. Is there any problem with the ultrasound affecting the reeds or tuning?
No problems, drops the whole harp in, rinse, shake, play the water out of it.
...my wife now has more reason to find me disgusting.
For your convenience,
www.micromark.com has a wonderful ultrasonic cleaner (#82413) for $89.95 I also recommend you purchase the concentrated cleansing solution (#81871). One quart makes about 8 gallons of working solution. That's a lot of "Harmonicocus" to clean off!
Kinya
I would like to stress here that you do not submerge, wash, or soak your wood combs. Even if they have been treated to be water resistant. The water will crack the comb. And do not leave your wood comb harmonicas in your car in the summer... especially your chromatics (I learned this from experience)
Thanx Jon,
Only plastic and metal based components are allowed to take a dip in my ultrasonic bath.
Kinya
You're freakin' me out with this stuff.
Leave it alone and just walk away...
;o)