Subject: RE: Cleaning a Harmonica
From: Steve Shaw - PM
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 08:13 PM

Toothbrush red alert! Brush only from the fixed end of the reeds to the free end. One stroke in the other direction and it's bye-bye harmonica. When you get home from playing your harmonicas, clean them and let them dry in the air overnight before putting them away. Plastic-combed, unvalved harps (Special 20s and the like) can be washed out in a stream of tepid water then shaken out. You can do this with the modern 10-hole harps with wood combs such as blues harps that have MS stamped on the covers, but be quick. Older, hand-made blues harps and Marine Bands should not be immersed in water at all. If you have an Echo harp and you want to destroy it in one fell swoop just wash it under the tap. Bye-bye Echo. Likewise with Hohner 270s and the other wood-combed chromatics. You really are best off not cleaning these as long as they are working well, but you can clean the mouthpiece and slide mechanism by holding the harp mouthpiece-down in a shallow container of hot water whilst working the slide. Don't turn the harp the right way up until you've shaken out the excess water, and then allow it to air-dry, mouthpiece down. If you have a valved harp with sticking valves you can nearly always alleviate the problem by warming the harp before playing it. Put it in a little bag for half an hour with one of those little gel hand-warmers or put it down the front of your trousers. The counsel of perfection is not to play harmonicas unless your mouth is very clean, without trace of food residues. I break this rule only with harmonicas that can be washed through, as above. I'm not going to play my chroms after eating chips, thanks. Even if you don't do any other cleaning, always clean the mouthpiece of every harp after every playing session. If you do these things you will rarely have to contemplate dismantling harmonicas for cleaning, and you won't keep getting cold sores or worse