G'day again JimP,

I've been thinking over the basic problem you have ... the enduring pong of Old Spice - acceptable on your chin, but not an aid to interpreting the harmonica!

You need not be too fearful of getting the harmonica wet ... it certainly gets damp in normal playing. My reference, above, to "4 bleeding holes in my lips from swollen wooden mouthorgan bodies scraping away bits of face all night comes from a time when I was mainly playing harmonica: the small, 10-hole, vampers - back before plastic bodies became standard. Just that small amount of wooden body would swell, after solid playing, enough that the wooden dividers would project far enough to impinge on the lips.

If I had been playing an individual note style, like "blues harp", the sideways 'scrape' would be minimal ... but I was playing fast dance music with lots of 'percussive' chordal techniques and the wear and tear on my lips was considerable. I had a few Hohner "Orchester" vampers (I had to order them in and wait for them to arrive from Germany!), which had metal dividers made of shaped nickel-plated (~) brass. These were smooth and stable ... but expensive and hard to get. When Hohner brought out its "Special 20" vampers (late '70s?) it was as manna from Heaven! I stocked up on them (and repair plate kits - since I was 'blowing out' an average of one vamper every performance ... mostly due to playing over lots of other loud instruments, with primitive PA!).

Anyway, since wooden bodied harmonicas live in an environment where they are routinely wet enough to swell - and then dry out before their next use - I would not worry too much about the risks of a brisk rinse. I would tend to use comfortably warm water, give a few thorough rinses and then vigorously shake out as much water as possible, without undue violence to the instrument. I might, if I thought the natural drying properties of the surroundings were insufficient, perhaps give the harmonica a gentle session with a hand-held hairdryer (set on low) - certainly not letter it get more than just warm to the touch.

Give it one fairly gentle rinse and see if it improves (and ... you may be getting used to the taste of Old Spice!). All mouthorgans, even the old wooden ones, were made with the expectation that they would be routinely damp ... and, occasionally, quite wet.

Regards,

Bob