General Music Chat

Has anyone here ever made an instrument before? I ask as I was given a Hohner Marine Band in the key of "C" with two broken "teeth" in the comb. I am trying to construct a new comb and would like some tips on how I can do this and make a quality instrument. I plan to clean and boil the reed plates and otherwise reuse them and the reed covers. I am tempted to make my comb slightly thicker than a normal harmonica comb. Does anyone know if this will adversely affect how it plays? I want to do this and do it right so to bring new life in what is an otherwise old and useless instrument.

Because of their small size I imagine fixing or making an harmonica would be a major challenge. There's two problems that keep happening with harmonicas over and over. First the reeds are tiny and blowing or drawing air through them with force "bends" the notes. The reeds are supposed to go right back to their normal shape but sometimes they don't. On some models the reeds are thinner and bend easier like Blues Harps. Great for playing the blues unless you use too much force. I had better luck with Golden Melodies. Then there's always stuff from your mouth that gets stuck inside the small openings. There's nothing worse than taking a big harp solo and nothing happens on one of the big notes. I tried fixing the permanently bent reeds many times with no luck. If you can figure out a way to fix one you're a better man than me. If you can make your own and the reeds can't be permanently bent and no "stuff" gets stuck in the holes AND it plays great, well then you'd be a genius. Hohner hasn't been able to do it.

Steps in order:

1) toss the harp into the woods

2) make an Irish Low whistle

,,,it also might be easier and less time consuming AND less $ to simply buy a new one, after all time is $...