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From: Winslow Yerxa <76450.32~ompuServe.COM>
Date: 29 Sep 96 14:18:25 EDT
Subject: Slide Problems (was Not a Fish)

TO: internet:harp~arply.com

Siegfied -

Thanks for your kind offer to help with my Super 64x slide.

It doesn't seize up when dry - quite the opposite. It starts out
OK, but succumbs to increasing friction as I play. My breath
moisture - and I play with a clean mouth - seems to activate some
friction-inducing condition or substance. I've tried polishing it
and playing with screw tension, and putting in new bumpers, but
it still behaves the same way. It doesn't appear to be bent.

When you say

adjust the curved mouthpiece into a straightposition,

Do you mean re-bend it so it is no longer curved, or sand it like
Doug Tate recommends, or what? My understanding is that the
curvature is needed to maintain suffucient airtightness in the
middle of the harmonica.

I have tried silicone grease from a tube on one of my 270's and
it seems to sludge up with moisture. I don't know if the liquid
silicone is better than this. Toots uses trombone slide oil -
*nasty* tasting stuff, but he holds the harp mouthpiece down when
squirting tiny amounts in at the ends.

I have similar problems with 270's - a non-troublesome slide is a
rare and winderful thing. I notice that the part of the slide
that sticks out always seems to develop lines on the front from
the back of the mouthpiece,and I've tried grinding these
mouthpiece surfaces so that they don't dig into the slide, but I
still have the same troubles.

I've played CX-12's a few times. They play nicely but I don't
much like the sound - despite anything Vern might say, I hear too
much plastic in the sound - I can tell one from across a room
without looking. I also like the long-slope type of mouthpiece
profile - like the CBH or Tate's new Renaissance. Someone offered
me a CX-12 to demonstrate at my recent workshop and the steep
mouthpiece curve felt rather strange in my mouth for the wide
tongue-blocked intervals I was demonstrating - hard to tell if it
would feel more friendly with extended playing.

Saw your article in the new Harmonica Educator. The CB-16 sounds
interesting, with its short slide movement. Does it sound less
plasticky? Also very interested in your slide bass harmonica and
would like to know more about it.

Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
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