[Harp-L] crystal repairs
bbh...@aol.com
when a crystal is dead, it is dead. This is about 70% by the older elements.
So lets try together, ok?,
Take a very small screwdriver or a knife and go inside the small holes of the black grill ( outside )
Do never force the work, open the grill very softly . Do not stay at the same place during you do this. Go around the Grill and open a little here , a little there.
When the black Grill is open, you´ll see the membran and in the center you see the centerpin fixed with glue. Around the membran you see a fixing ring
also black . Take a knife and take the ring away like you did with the grill.
Perhaps you dont need to do this. Press with your fingers just a little bit around the centerpin. If you see nothing the glue is ok . If the centerpin is moving,
take away the old glue and put on a new one. I take doubleglue ( Fixer and glue ) If you have a Ohmeter ( Multimeter ), put it on mV (ac) and now if you touch the membran you will see some mv on the multymeter. This shows if the crystal is ok. If you see nothing, you have to take away the Membran. Put the Membran in a small plate with Aceton ( not to mutch ) and wait some hours. After this you can take away the membran and have a look inside the Element. Is the centerpin fixed on the crystal???
By older elements you will see direktly if the crystal is broken. If the centerpin is not fixed on the crystal , do it with a little glue
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xccccccccccccccc
xccccccccccccccc
xcccccccccccccpp
x is the crystal holder C is the crystal and P is where you fix the centerpin.
If the pin is fixed try again to touch carefuly the pin and look to the mulitymeter (or try it with your amp to have a noise). You see some mV,or you hear a noise coming out of the amp then put on the membran and fix the membran with glue like you´ve seen when you open it. The fixingring is not needed. Put on carefully the Black grill thats it. A crystal is ageing , but we will not feel it, because it needs Time , alot of time. If the element is loosing the power, the fixing is bad because the glue ist old :-)
www.Harponline.de
Here you can read a report I did years ago, so 90% of sound is coming by the Harpplayer. If you have the right technik you take a Mikrophone highimpedance and an Amp close your hand around the Mikrophon and harp (cupping) and play, you will have the sound with the right technik. The Mikrophone or amp is secundaer at all.
Do not spent hours by ebay for bying elements with absolut crasy prices just because you dont know it better. If the element sounds bad, do some work like I just wrote. For CR elements it`s also easy to get it working great. I´am alwasy wondering about the crasy stuff people write in Chats or posting lists, the most reason is the best in your pocket, ...your money!!!!
There are some adresses you always by good elements like dave scott or Toms miks , Fritz Hasenputch.. if you are afraid to do the work yourselfe. Also with amps, there are tonedifferences of course but less is more. The biggest sounds in the musikworld
always was coming from small Amps in Musicstudios. A big Amp can sound greate to, but take care with your neighbours :-)
Ok take care .
Best regards Ralf BBH
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Joe Spiers
it. Most people would have had a brief funeral for it, but of course I
did an autopsy. Inside, I found a dark-colored wafer-like element (the
crystal?) had fallen off the narrow two-sided ledge that it's supposed
to precariously reside on, secured by a little metal springy clip that
also serves as an electrical connection (internally). I could
immediately see how one bounce off the floor would knock it off. It
was a finicky task, but I put everything back like it was obviously
supposed to be and reassembled the cartridge. It's still my strongest
and best sounding "crystal" (although my current favorite is a black
label CR that Sonny Jr sent me). I was stoked about repairing it, and
even offered to fix them for others on this list and and the Weber amp
discussion board. One seemingly especially-mean person there warned
everyone there that I was a blatant liar....putting it nicely......
and no one on this list even wanted to risk the tremendous blow to
their budget that it would cost to mail me their dead element
(what....maybe a buck?) to do a free autopsy on theirs (and either fix
it for a small fee-- or perform the burial). I was hoping to examine
more subjects, and do something nice for other harmonica players, but
was ignored. But I digress.
Later MC151's used MC127 housings with a sticker labeling them as
MC151. My "crystal" didn't have any appearance of a white salt and may
not have actually been a crystal. I don't know.... I called it that
because that was what it was supposed to be, and I didn't know any
better. There was a rumour I heard later from Stephen S. that he'd
heard somewhere that Astatic just stuck the stickers on them- they
were actually just relabled ceramics. If you have a dead one, it's
worth looking into, no? Mine certainly sounds GREAT. And no, the offer
isn't still good.
JS