[Harp-L] Re: Maker's Mark for Soaking Harps??!!!

[Kel620@xxxxxxx]

You used Maker's Mark to soak your harps!? I would have used regular Jack  
Daniels or Jim Beam instead. Maker's is GOOD bourbon. Try Knob Creek as well(for 
 drinking NOT soaking). :-) I remember probably 10 or so years ago, I read in 
a  harp book that vodka or gin was used for soaking. I have a feeling that 
the harp  player used whatever was his favorite liquor.
 
K. Williams
 
 
In a message dated 12/26/2008 2:16:09 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx writes:


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Message:  1
Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:58:11 -0800 (PST)
From: David Payne _harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
(mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) 


I  think this only proves your point in the other part of your post about 
facts  being fluid. There is NO reason to soak harps today with comb sealing, 
even  factory sealing available, but I am always interested in history. I've been 
a  vehement opponent of soaking harps, then, one day I was thinking, and I do 
 think a lot about things that don't really matter- why I thought that. I  
concluded it was because somebody told me not to, which isn't good enough for  
me these days. 
In thinking about soaking, I've concluded it was the lesser  of the evils 
back in the day. When you soak a comb it swells, and the combs  were cut so that 
they swelled out against the reedplate before the swelled up.  When you file 
or sand the swelled comb teeth, the teeth will shrink into the  harp as it 
dries, but soak it again and it's where it should be. So when you  soaked it 
again, it got tighter and also it cleaned out gunk.
Beer was a  bad choice, I think because of the sugars, but one can't rule out 
soaking  because of that, regardless of when or what something is, not 
everybody does  it right. And beer might have worked very well IF you were a guy 
that blew out  a harp every few weeks. It would never have time to get nasty.
The one that  intrigues me most is soaking harps in whiskey, especially 
bourbon, which  begins life as moonshine and gets its color and taste from the 
stuff in  the wood it's stored in that gets drawn out. It would have been a  
disinfectant and one of those things it gets from the wood, can't remember the  
name of it, but i mentioned in an earlier post, is a powerful  antibiotic.

So, I wondered first what would have been left in the wood  after a soaking 
in bourbon, or similar Kentucky-style whiskey, or Scotch. I  got some Early 
Times, purely for the advancement of scientific  knowledge and whatnot of 
course;) and put a drop on a plate to dry  overnight. The stuff that was left, the 
wood solids, was fairly hard and,  interestingly enough, water would pool on top 
of it. I imagine  this would slow the moisture exchange of the wood, so the 
alcohol would  remain inside longer and playing moisture wouldn't permeate as 
easily. My  hypothesis is that that cleaned it out and controlled swelling at 
just  the right amount of swell to keep the harp tight.  
The next  part of this test will be to soak an NOS Seydel Solist from 2006,  
the last full year it was unsealed and see what the whiskey does to the comb.  
I've decided since that the Early Times was unworthy of the Seydel, so I  
bought a little bottle of Maker's Mark. The Early Times will likely be used  for 
"less critical" research.

I do not advocate soaking today. Back in  the day, however, with what you had 
to work with and the unique situations  y'all faced, it does appear to me 
that you old timers knew what you were  talking about.


_________________________________
Dave Payne Sr.  
Elk River  Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com



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