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Also see the Diatonic Maintenance Page for articles on reed adjustment that apply just as well to chromatics.

How to Clean a Chromatic Harmonica
by
Cham-Ber Huang

It has been some times ago, I contributed with my knowledge about proper cleaning to your chromatic. Many players tried and it worked really well and thanked me for my contribution. Hope this will work for you too. 

It does not matter which make your chromatic harmonica is, there is a double layer plastic valve behind every reed (except a few short reeds in the highest holes. All are dirty players (including myself). Once a while you got to clean your harmonica regardless which make you have. I emphasized mentioning double layer plastic valve because sooner or later when you blow into the harmonica, the dried up salivation deposit will also accumulate between the double layers of the plastic valves. It is difficult to separate the said double layers and clean up the dirt between the layers. Maybe the good God had gifted me to know how to remedy this problem while I was a young kid when Mr. Beutel from Hohner, Germany came to Shanghai (China) and gave me my first chromatic as a gift. This is what and how I do to easily clean my chromatic ever since then and proved that it worked really well. 

1. Disassemble your chromatic into parts. 
2. Use a brush to clean the comb in a sink of soapy water. Rinse it clean, towel dry, and have it ready for assembly later. (NOTE: If your comb is wood this is not recommended - use a swab and alcohol to clean the comb.)  
3. Do the same to the slide parts. 
4. You cannot easily or practically clean the dirt in between each double layer plastic valve. Therefore, I suggest that you prepare a sink of hot soapy water hold the reed plate at two ends, shake it in the soapy water. Then hold the plate with the tip of plastic valve facing up under the faucet against the current of hot running water. The hot running water will open up the two layers of the plastic valve and flush away the dirt accumulated in them. Don't be afraid that the hot running water way flush the plastic valve off the plate. The hot water cannot damage the valves. You can always glue the valve back to the reed plate. 
5. Hold a clean and dry towel on your hand. Hold the reed plate at one end. Lightly pat the plate against the towel. This will make the excess wetness on the reed plate to be absorb to the towel. The plates are now half dry and you can tell that all valves are now as good as they were new. 

If you are careful, you would not cause any damage to plastic valves and/or plates. Just in case that you need to replace one or two plastic valves, find the same length ones from your collection of old plates. If you need a few extras, call Sissy at Hohner to send you a few. Tell her that Cham-Ber said so. ( I didn't say call Huang, unless your problem is with a Huang harmonica.)

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How to Fix Buzzing Windsavers
by
Bill Price

At 12:29 AM 6/4/2002, BOB wrote:
>I am a new player and new to this site. I started playing diatonic
>last August and received a Chrometta 14 from my son for Christmas.
>Since the first few days I have had some popping problems with, what
>I assume, are the windsavers. I have read that chromatics must be
>disassembled and cleaned periodically. My question is how do I clean
>it once I have removed the screws and cover plates? What do I clean
>it with? What precautions should I be aware of once I have it
>disassembled? Do I need any special tools? Thank you in advance for
>your help.
>
>Bob
Hi Bob - There are some solutions to this.
Popping is usually because of moisture under the flap, causing surface 
tension, which requires a hefty blow to release it. Moisture will 
always be there, but if you can minimize it, you'll have less popping.
Easiest fix - Warm the harp to the air-temp of your lungs before 
playing. That'd be in the neighborhood of 98.6degrees F, which can be found 
under an arm, or in an inside jacket pocket, or on a heating pad set to WARM! 
NOT HOT OR EVEN MEDIUM!  I know, the heating pad is a bit extreme for a casual player, 
but we all have armpits.  Extreme heat will melt your plastic comb and curl your 
windsavers (flaps) so avoid hot cars, ovens, nuclear reactor cooling towers, etc.
A second fix, but trickier:
If you think you are up to it, cut a little off the loose end of the 
flap, so that about 1/64th" of the slot below is open to the air. This is not 
easy, and although replacing a flap is about a 10 second job for me, it 
could be a real pain for you, and you probably don't have a spare flap 
anyway--not that a dozen of us wouldn't mail you one at the drop of a 
hat, but it's such a pain for a non-tech player to replace one.
A third fix, not so tricky:
lay some 120 grit sandpaper, grit up, under the flap (so that the 
bottom of the flap is lying on the grit). Press down with a thumb or finger so 
that you make an impression of the grit on the underside of the flap. This 
can help by lessening the chance for surface tension to make a seal, and is 
not as risky as snipping a bit off the end.
And another: 
Lift the flap, and with a very sharp razor knife, score a 
bunch of little lines so that one end of the lines ends up inside the 
reed slot. This makes little channels to let some air through, and helps 
prevent the surface tension from making a seal. A bit risky if you 
slip--but you may be a surgeon--I never asked.
You can clean the flaps by slipping almost any non-sticky, non-coated 
paper (like news print) (wet the paper first) under the flap, pressing your finger 
lightly downward on the flap, and withdrawing the paper, so as to "wipe" the underside 
of the flap.
You'll also note that there are two layers to most flaps. the bottom is 
the flap; the top is the "spring." If they stick together (suppose you were 
eating glue right before playing), they can buzz, or stick, or do other 
annoying things. You can clean between the two layers exactly as above, 
with the wet paper.
Picnics have flies and ants; golf has sand traps. Chromatic harmonicas 
have windsavers.
If you get "into" the care and maintenance, you can get some Teflon 
windsavers from many sources, one of whom is Bill Romel 
(romel@earthlink.net). He has two kinds--pre-adhesived (is that a 
word?) and plain. Get the plain.
My favorite adhesive is Liquid Nails. A tiny dab on the point of a pin 
or toothpick is plenty, and you can play immediately. This stuff is made 
to hold paneling to walls. It can be easily removed by scraping with a 
fingernail or razorblade, wipes off if you get too much, and is about 
$1 in a caulking gun tube. A much smaller sized tube of "Liquid nails for 
small projects" sells for about $3, and apparently, people would rather spend 
the extra $2 than waste a whole caulking-gun tube of the stuff, but that 
decision is up to you. Some people recommend that you fix your flaps only 
when paneling a room--the choice is yours.
Enjoy,
Bill (ask him how to get to the mall and he tells you how to build a 
damn 
car) Price
(PS, you can buy the plain white flaps from Hohner, visit their website 
hohnerusa.com for mailing address, contact them by phone for amount, 
shipping, etc.)

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Date: Wed, 30 May 2024 12:30:06 -0700
To: harp-l-digest@garply.com
Subject: Total Harmonica Maintenance

>Do you happen to know of any good books that are focused on harmonica maintenance/tuning?
>
>-Craig


Dear Craig,

There are only 3 things: gapping, centering, and tuning.

1. Gapping - First, YOU CAN NOT BREAK A REED BY TUNING AND GAPING; if you don't believe me, take an old harp and try to break off a good reed. If it can vibrate at A 440, it can stand to have you bend it up. If a reed breaks off, it was already cracked.  Set the gap between the reed and the plate; higher on the low notes and gradually lower on the high notes. Very simple - the reed should respond if you play softly but not choke if you hit it hard. If it chokes or hesitates, it's too low; if you hear air coming through before it starts, it's too high. Push a pick (see below) under the reed to raise it; use your thumb near the base of the reed to push it down. Tune after you gap because gapping stretches the reed. The reeds can only be gapped by you because you need to test them on the spot.

2. Centering - If a reed rings or buzzes, it need to be centered in the slot. Use the pick to center it and hold the plate up to a light to see that it's in the middle of the slot.

3., Tuning - Buy yourself a Korg tuner that can hear the high notes. Tune the notes to YOUR playing, usually the low notes are a little sharper so they are in tune when you hit them hard. Use a small jewelry file and file the ends to make them sharper; put the pick under the reed for support. File or scratch near the base to make the reed flat. For blues I tune the draw notes as follows:

Draw 1 -444
Draw 2 -443
Draw 3 -440
Draw 4 -443
draw 5 -438
Draw 6 -443

Which means:

Draw 1 - +4hz
Draw 2 - +3hz
Draw 3 - +0hz
Draw 4 - +3hz
Draw 5 - -2hz
Draw 6 - +3hz

Referenced to "normal" (dead-center) tuning. Since most harps are tuned slightly sharp to begin with, the variations from the original "factory" tuning will vary.

Using the first numbers provided above as calibration references for the tuner will allow you to tune these reeds to dead-center, regardless of what note is generated.

You can check 5th's and octaves with tongue blocking. The chord should sound in tune when YOU play it, not on a machine. BE SURE TO CHECK THE TUNING AFTER YOU ASSEMBLE THE HARMONICA. Reeds go flat when you screw down the plates and when you put the covers back on.

PICK: Make a pick out of piece of 1/4 inch band steel; break off a 4 inch piece and grind the end until it's sharp then round the ground end so you can slide it under reeds.


Harmonically yours,

Robert Bonfiglio

http://www.robertbonfiglio.com

Ok--even today, unless you're in the Oz outback, you can get to a Wal-Mart and buy 2 or 3 of their $1.97 diatonics (toy dept) and begin experimenting (best way to understand tuning and reed-swapping). To tune, you support the reed by slipping a razor blade under it, then scrape a bit from the tip with another razor blade (or any number of other scrapers or abrasives) to RAISE the pitch. To LOWER the pitch, you scrape (or etc.) material from the rivet end (not the square part that holds the rivet, but the part just after the reed enters the slot). Doing this part, you must be particularly careful not to "score" the reed crosswise, which would provide a weak point which would break prematurely. I like to scrape a reed lengthwise with a curved blade Exacto (among other techniques) to avoid straight lines etc. Lower reeds require the removal of more metal to give you the same amount of change (say, a half-tone) than higher reeds. An example might be about a 5:1 ratio of the number of scrapes to shift a low reed 1/2tone vs. a high reed. Your mileage will vary, depending on how hard you scrape. Don't scrape hard. Don't deform the reed. Don't take too much off, so that you have to go and scrape the other end to make up for it. 

To change a reed: get the smallest pin punch that Home Depot sells. Do anything you want to decrease the diameter down to the diameter of a harmonica rivet. chuck it into a drill, e.g., and sand or file or grind it 'til it's the same size (actually, a tad smaller is best for me) as a rivet. This is a $3 item and takes a few minutes with an electric drill and sandpaper or a file.  From the side where the reed isn't, knock a rivet back out of the hole in the plate. the reed will come with it. for an "anvil," use a pair of pointed pliers, laying on your table, slightly opened, so that the reed and rivet fit between the jaws and the plate is supported on the jaws.  You'll figure out the best way based on what you have handy. 

Now, with the rivet in the reed (they usually stay in), put it back. This time, after it's "set" in place, you need to smack the rivet while the other end of the rivet is resting on the jaw of the pliers. This is not really the way riveting is done, but for this purpose, it's fine. Now you have replaced a reed. Now remove a long one, cut it to fit a shorter slot, and put it in there. Make the fit as best you can, nice square end. I'd cut with a cold-chisel rather than a wire cutter or snips, as they might deform the reed.  You'll figure out what's best for you.  Cut it a little long, and sand, grind, file, etc the end nice and square.  A 10x-20x magnifier or loupe is hand for checking fit, and looking for imperfections, burrs, etc. 

It's important to center the reed in the slot, so it doesn't rub an edge. You'd figure that out if I didn't tell you, but I've already learned it. Get a set of auto feeler gauges for adjusting valves on cars. get the stainless ones, not brass. use the thinnest .0015" and cut it in half (don't use the "good scissors!") lengthwise so you have two pieces to work with. they're VERY HANDY!  Slide it alongside the reed in the slot to deburr and help center the reed.  Take a thicker blade, and grind (with a dremel if you have one) or file (much harder) a notch in the end to make an "open end wrench" which fits the butt end of the reed (near the rivet).  Bend the end of the wrench so that it's offset (look at offset wrenches in the store to understand if this isn't clear, I can't draw a pic) and that's your reed centering wrench. 

Once you do that, cut a piece of brass or any other material, pound it to the right thickness, measure, cut to shape, smooth the edges, surfaces, drill a hole, and MAKE YOUR OWN REED. That's the initiation. It won't be perfect, but when you have made your own reed, and played a note on it, you have arrived. You can hold your head up proudly at SPAH, and say, "Why, yes--I've made my own reed--hasn't everyone?"