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DATE: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 07:43:17 CST
From: gran~rl.philips.nl
Subject: Jaggy wet harps

Just to give you my experience of wooden-combed harps....

I have a Marine Band in A which, after reading in a couple of books that it
was a good idea to soak (wooden) harps before use, and to shave off protruding
bits of comb while soaked, I did just that.

I only cut down the bottom 4 or 5 segments of the comb, since these tended to
swell up a lot more, since they are played more. Then I had the problem that
the new wood thus revealed was very dry and frictive (?), so I re-varnished the
exposed edges.

All well and good, but since then I have hardly used the harp, for several
reasons:

1) If the harp is not yet "soaked" (like when you pick it up in the morning)
then the leakage around the incomplete comb elements make playing a night-
mare.

2) The imperfect varnishing job (my fault, I know) still plays havoc with
my lips, as do the uncut comb elements which eventually protrude after playing
a while.

3) I bought a few Pro-Harps (black with a full plastic cover over the comb -
I don't know if the wooden comb still lurks therein) which are kinder to lips
than Johnson's is to a baby's bottom.

The sound from wooden combed harps which are perfectly dry may be slighty
different from that from plasticos, but without your lips, you can't play
a note (nose-tooting accountants excepted!).

To sum up:

IMHO Burn the suckers!.

goobs

(aka)
--
Grant, dr. D.M.
Philips Research Laboratories
Building WAY4 047, Prof. Holstlaan 4, 5656 AA Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-40-742468 E-mail: gran~rl.philips.nl