So most Sundays my wife and I go to breakfast then decide which swap meet we are going to go to. We see it as a good way to get some exercise and time together. Well this past Sunday we went to one of my favorite swap meets for vinyl records and I got a couple, well one of the sellers had a Hohner GLH(great little harp), it was very dusty and looked like it had never been cleaned. It didn’t have and major damage and for 2 bucks I thought it would be a great harmonica too clean up and get experience working on them. So yesterday I took it apart and it put it in my ultrasonic cleaner with distilled water, vinegar and a drop of dish soap. Well it really helped clean it pretty good. Then i took some never dull and polished up the cover plates and reed plates. One of the reeds needed adjustment so I did that and now I have a nice sounding, cheap practice harmonica and gained some confidence with working on them. I think it was successful.
I have a ton of old harps I stockpiled I never throw them away because they are ideal to tinker with some of them I’ve actually brought back to life
Yes@ Andy2 I agree I also don’t like to get rid of my older harps for thew same reason, or other gear for that matter lol.
@Moman I’m pretty certain it was GLHs I took to sea when starting my first career 
. Cheap they may have been but to have lasted so well they must either have been pretty well made or never played. I know one of mine took a deep 6 dive to Neptune’s playground but there’s still one somewhere in my toy box. Jay1
@Jay1 yes they must be well built cause it lasted as long as it has. The one I got was played a lot by the condition it was in, I saw only one reed that needed to be adjusted and only played a few notes on it. It sounds good to me. I don’t think Hohner makes this model anymore.
Thanks for the tip on cleaning. I need to clean my harps but don’t want to take them apart for concern they won’t go back together right again, especially a chromatic.
I feel ya @peg_T I was a little Leary at first to take apart my harmonica but after I did it the first time it was not hard at all. I don’t own a chromatic harmonica I thought about getting one but I figured I better get a lot better at diatonic one first. Glad to help in anyway.
You could soak them in surgical Spirit and then run them under a tap. Then tap them out and air dry them on a cloth or kitchen roll to absorb any excess moisture. Alternatively if you take the plates off. While it’s dry get a small tooth brush, brush away from the rivet end to get off any excess detritus wash em gently on a bowl of hot soapy water rinse under the cold tap leave to air dry as before. Reassemble.
Yes Andy2 that would work as well. I’m not sure what surgical spirit is I assume it’s like Isopropyl Alcohol.
Yep that is actually what it is, but my spell checker wouldn’t let me write it:joy:
Yeah spell check can be a pain sometimes.