marineband crossover rinse
I rinsed my crossover under the tab to get the gunk out, and now the comb seems swollen. Steve Baker had told me he rinsed his crossovers also underneath the tab and that the bamboo comb wouldn't swell. What did I do wrong? Or was Steve just putting me on?
allright, thank you very much for the advice!
I appreciate it.
Hi, you may like to check out the harponline site in Germany (there is an Engish translation tab), there is test that they undertook, soaking a Deluxe & a crossover in water for some time & analysing the results. As far as I recall, both floated at the start, the deluxe did sink to the bottom after a while. After the test neither showed any swelling. The site itself is very interesting. If you have any problems finding it I will send you a link.
That's really interesting; thanks for pointing it out.
Harponline has been a really great site and a business that has offered great service to harmonica players with instruments, parts, and custom instruments.
Unfortunately, they are shutting down soon, as the owner, Michael Timmler, has been hired by Hohner as their new product manager, where I'm sure he'll do great things.
Heaven knows.
Steve's pretty straight up. He's a capital-H hohner guy, but not to the point of encouraging you to something harmful to your instrument.
Maybe Steve just gave them a quick moment under the tap and tapped them out right away. Or maybe the piece of bamboo in your Crossover comb was more porous than some others.
My own experience is that wood is wood, and that the minimal finish added by Hohner will not make it impervious to moisture.
You might let your harp dry out in a warm, dry place for awhile (such as an unlit gas oven with a pilot light providing mild warmth). Leave it assembled so that the wood doesn't warp into a shape that won't allow you to re-assemble the harp.
For a screwed-together harp, you might consider doing dry cleaning with a toothbrush for most things. If you really want to do a deeper cleaning, disassemble it, brush out the comb, and do any wet cleaning only on the metal parts, if you feel it's necessary.