I was wondering what to use to clean my harmonica without ruining the reeds. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips? Thanks
2 answers, one for harps with wood combs and another one for plastic or metal combs.
For thorough cleaning a wood comb harp you first have to carefully remove the cover plates and Reed plates. The covers can be cleaned up with 3m pads and your favorite cleanser. Rinse thoroughly and polish them dry and set aside. The wood combs will take an old toothbrush and alcohol (whiskey will work) don’t soak the combs just use enough liquid (not water) to clean off the dryed spit.
Now to the Reed plates, these can be soaked for an hour or so in whiskey and vinegar 50/50 then carefully brush any built up crud that’s left . Be careful with the reeds you don’t want brush hairs stuck in them. Rinse with water and dry. You don’t want to smell the vinegar or whiskey when you’re done, it you can smell some Rinse more. Reassemble carefully big reeds correspond with the low numbers on the Reed plate. Note that air tightness may be affected by dis-assembly and reassembly. Many people sand the plates and combs to assist in airtight assembly… others will paint beeswax on the comb, I don’t recommend that you do this your best harps the 1st time try this all out on an older harp.
Plastic comb harps can be soaked in vinegar and whiskey with out disassemblally and rinse with water until you can’t smell or taste the whiskey/vinegar. This is much simpler than what you do with wood combs.
Side note. Wood combs can be made almost water proof with spray lacquer or spray polyurethane or a number of other varnishes. If you choose to do this because of an irrational love of wood combs please air out the combs before you play. If you try varnishing you will need to flat sand…
Please remember that less you do the less chance you have of needing to buy a new harp.
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Hi Pat,
I soak my harmonicas (plastic combs) in hydrogen peroxide for 5-10 minutes, rinse with tap water, tap the excess out and let dry.
Some say hydrogen peroxide is not good for reeds and use isopropyl alcohol.
Ciao
Stefano 
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I use 70 pct alcohol and it works great. I do not have any wooden combs but if I did alochol would still be my choice. I dip the harps for about 15 seconds and if its hot outside I place them in the sun for about five minutes. Typically they are dry well before I get them back in. If its humid and/or cool I go over them with a hair drier on low and they are warm and dry. They play well and are always clean. haps seem to b like to be as warm as your breath and mine do not like chilly ,cool days. The big difference is how much easier they are to bend and play well. I do not take them apart unless a reed needs attention. Never had any problems with alcohol as far as damage or it attaching any pat of the harp. When you take the face plates off look the inside of the leading edge on both for any build up.
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Thanks for sharing. I will give it a try soon.
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Between uses, I give 'em a spit shine with a polishing cloth and dig out any gunk with my fingernails. 
For a more thorough cleaning, I take’ em apart and clean everything with alcohol and a cotton swab being careful not to leave any little cotton pieces behind. Then I dry them with cotton piece of cloth and then run the polishing cloth over them. 
For me too, they seem to play better after a thorough cleaning 
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Harps like a warm bath, reeds gapped right and being warm. Have you found bending is much easier when you clean a harp and/play it when its warm.? I can bend down a step or two w/o raising my tongue. I do not know what is going on but I contract the throat and the pressure differential increases. The airflow has a rush to it when i do this. if the harp is cool or the weather cold it does not work near as well as the harp temp drops quickly.