G'day Michael,

With modern, plastic-bodied, vampers there is nothing that is damaged by soaking - and much too gain, because you can wash the crud off them - often all it needs to fix a slightly flat reed. I rinse under reasonably warm water, if available, running as strong a stream as I can manage from an ordinary tap. Once I am happy that I have cleaned the instrument, I cool it down with cold water, shake and tap it as dry as possible and run up and down the scale to check and clear all reeds.

If there is still a flat note after effective washing (usually hole 7 blow with dance music ... or hole 3 draw with blues) - it is probably starting to crack and is a writeoff ... a new plate or a new instrument is needed.

After years of playing wooden-bodied vampers in a dance band in the '70s - ending every night with four bleeding holes in my face from wooden frames swollen out and scratching my mouth and lips - I welcomed the first plastic body Hohners (Special 20s) as a gift from Heaven!

The older Special 20s did have dodgy plating, so the outer plates tended to rust if you left them wet, but that seems to have improved in latter years.