How to make a custom, sealed Marine Band Harmonica

The top complaint for the 110-year old Marine Band harmonica is that the wood swells from moisture and catches your lips painfully as you play. Here's how you fix that problem and make a Marine Band harmonica as trouble free as a plastic-comb harmonica. Embossing and other customizing techniques will be discussed in a later article, but here's how you make a worry free, sealed Marine Band. This is was the first custom project for many who later turned out to be harmonica customizers. It was mine.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Automotive shim or a pocket knife.
• A nail punch or anything you can use to push nails back in.
• Pliers.
• A food-grade lacquer, such as salad-bowl finish.
• A brush.

1. Sounds simple (and it actually is) but, for most,the most intimidating aspect of this is taking the harmonica apart and putting it back together. Unlike most harmonicas made today, the brass reedplates and coverplates of the Marine Band are still held to the wood body by nails, as they were when Jacob Hohner invented it in the late 1890s. Once you've taken the harmonica apart and put it back together a couple of times, the nails don't hold as well and the harmonica leaks air. Keep reading, that's an easy problem to fix.
   
   If you have some old harmonicas, though, you may wish to practice working with those until you gain confidence.
2. Definitiions:
   Coverplate: This is the chromed-steel outside covering that protects the fragile harmonica reeds.
   Reedplate: The brass plate to which the reeds are attached.
   Body (or comb): The wooden body to which the reedplates are attached.
3. Disassemble, starting with coverplate.
   
   Take a pocket knife blade and use it as a wedge to get under the outside corner edge of the coverplates. Carefully slide the knife under the cover and with a gentle twisting motion, lift the cover. You could also use a thin automotive shim, which is probably safer.
4. Reedplate removal
   
   Remove the reedplates in much the same way you did the covers. Starting at the corners, take the knife and gently wedge it between the reedplate and wood body. Be gentle. Using too much force here can cause you to either cut your hand or destroy the harmonica.
   You don't want to use the knife to pry the reedplate off, what you do is pry the reedplate up slightly to loosen the nails, then pull the nails out with a pair of pliers. Carefully and easily work your way around the reedplate.
   
   Be very careful as you pry around the 1 blow reed. Reeds are extremely fragile and that is an easy one to snag as you pry the nails loose.
   If you aren't familiar with which reedplate is the draw plate and which is the blow, take a nail or similar object and mark "T" for top and "B" for bottom to help you remember how it goes back together.
5. Sanding:
   
   Once you've got the reedplates off you can start actually working on the wood, which you'll notice looks like something you'd use for combing your hair. Use a 600 grit sanding cloth to smooth the rough edges at the tips of the comb teeth for more comfortable playing. Be very careful, however, the comb teeth will break very easily. Just sand enough to eliminate the rough edges --- six swipes with the sanding cloth is probably enough.
6. Sealing:
   
   Use a finish that is non-toxic after drying, such as salad-bowl finish. Lightly brush it over the insides of the comb teeth, then the outside of the comb. Do not apply to heavily or the wood will swell. Your first coat should actually have a few dry spots on the insides of the comb teeth. The wood will soak up much of it before it dries, so with light coats of sealant, it will take around three coats to cover those dry spots.
   
   After each coat of sealant has had a few minutes to set up, use a dry brush to spread the sealant more evenly on the sides, where the reedplates will meet the wood. That surface must be as flat as possible, or the harmonica will leak air as you play.
7. When you are satisfied with the number of coats and the sealant has hardened, reassemble the harmonica. Install the blow (top) plate first. You can use any flat object, such as the flat part of a flathead screwdriver, to push the nails in. Once the blow reedplate is attached, align the other reedplate and hold it with you thumbs and forefingers. Make sure all the notes play before you finish putting it back together. If a reed will not play, check for obstructions.
8. Once you have both reedplates back on and the nails all pushed in, now you should make them a little tighter. You want the head of the nail to be nearly flush with the reedplate. You can use a pair of pliers to squeeze the nails tight, just be very careful no to squeeze anywhere near a reed, or you can tap them in lightly with a hammer and a punch.
9. You can only dissasemble a Marine Band so many times before the nail holes become loose. If you've had the harmonica apart before, the nails may not go back in tightly.
   If that is the case, break off the tip of a toothpick in each nail hole. You only want the tip of the toothpick in there, too much toothpick inside the nail hole could cause the comb to crack when you drive the nail in.
10. Assemble the covers and play.

Tips & Warnings

• You can purchase Marine Bands already sealed at elkriverharmonicas.com