[Harp-L] Harmonica Maintenance for the Complete Moron (ME!)



So, I've been making it a habit to sit down every week to work on my gig
harps.  Nothing fancy:  I take them apart, clean them, and gap the reeds.
If I hear a buzz in the reed I scrape the slot sides to be-burr.  If the
reed is not properly responsive or seems "airy" I do a tiny bit of embossing
on the reed plate..  That's it... nothing fancy.  I haven't even tried
tuning a reed yet.

The result is my harps have started to last longer.  I doubt that is because
of my feeble attempts at harp maintenance... more likely I am playing less
hard (high volume and excessive bends) because I'm working on my harps now.
And I used to toss a harp just because it had a buzz or sticky reed that
could not be fixed with a quick rinse.

Winslow's book -- Harmonica For Dummies -- got me started.  I bought the Lee
Oskar tools (excellent kit) which also comes with a good set of
instructions.  Maybe one day soon I'll buy a tuner and actually make my
harps play in tune.  Wouldn't that be something!

What tuner do you recommend?



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