How to Clean your Instrument | Page 4 | Band Nerd Guild | Guild Forums

fearmenot

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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:51 am

I'm not sure if anyone has posted anything about clarinets other than the first post, but I usually swab out each part after every few days of playing, and once in a while I take about 30 minutes to clean out the gunk and stuff out of the moutpiece and barrel. I don't know why, but it improves my playing quality if my mouthpiece is spiffy clean.

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 4:35 am

Brilliant thread. xd

I'd try the thing with the notes, but our cash is polymer over here, not paper. gonk

Why why can't you soak wookwind instruments, do they rust? gonk

I do the same thing with my flute, put cloth through eye of needle like stick, stick through after every time, and use felt for the outside. Hell, I once spent an hour with a toothpick and cotton wool cleaning all the dust and whatnot out of the nooks and crannies of my flute. sweatdrop And occasionally I'd use soak tissues in water to clean the inside. Dry it after, but. xp

fire_eyez

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Wildervast

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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:30 am

fire_eyez

I'd try the thing with the notes, but our cash is polymer over here, not paper. gonk

But they're so colorful and pretty! American notes are boring.

I polished my cello before I packed it up for the plane ride back to college. It looks so nice now heart

Stupid chunk of spruce and maple. When I was packing it for travel, I had to knock the soundpost down inside with a pen and chopstick because it stayed up even after I'd slackened the strings and removed the bridge. Then last week, the cold weather was making my pegs slip and not stick where I turned them, so I tried to loosen all the strings and put some stuff on them that's supposed to make them stick. Well, my bridge started tilting because of the loosened strings, and when I moved it, guess what? The soundpost fell down. It was four days before I could get it to the shop to have it fixed crying

They sent someone to pick up my cello and they were done fixing it in about two hours. When I got back to my room and checked it, I noticed that they'd put the bridge on backwards. Grah. It still plays, but it's not something that you want to have wrong for a long time.

...And that was Silver's cello's most excellent adventure. Moral: Don't loosen all the strings at once, durrr.

Updated 2/2: Got my bridge turned right way 'round and the pegs are sticking now. My baby's all better now 3nodding

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:50 am

Okay, I have just read this entire thread to try and figure out how to clean my tenor sax. eek Help! I've got this cool fluffy thingy (currently in my old tenor sax, but soon to help clean out my wonderfullific not-so-new-anymore baby. But I still don't know how to get all that gunk that has collected at the bottom of the instrument. Help!

(Btw, all you clarinetists... thanks for the tips on cleaning it. My sister's clarinet is DIS-GUST-ING!)

TSax4Evr

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DJ Nintendo

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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:21 pm

fire_eyez

Why why can't you soak wookwind instruments, do they rust? gonk

It's because woodwind instruments have pads. Getting pads wet like that, and you're looking at a nice $25 down the drain to replace your pads.

For clarinet players - the plaque you get get on your mouthpiece? There's an easier way than picking it off. Just take a bit of rubbing alcohol to it. Comes right off.

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:57 pm

How do you clean flutes?

`Surgeon General Sexy`

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Oxidado

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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 8:03 pm

wow, awesome thread by the way, i now have a huge urge to clean my instrument...

my old band director used to tell us to run room temperature water through our brass instruments

Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 8:08 pm

Our BD once told us about one of his students that put their clarinet in the dishwasher.... (BAD IDEA FOLKS! NO GOOD!)

M e r r i c k

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fire_eyez

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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 3:05 am

OK, guys, I need your help.

I haven't wiped the dust off my piano for 7 or 8 years. I tried wiping it with a tissue today but it's gone all cloudy and splotchy. x.x

And the keys feel all oily too. gonk

But is there something I could use on the rest of the piano? Just to get it all smooth and shiiiny and clean again? ninja

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 6:16 pm

Oboes:

Swab you oboe out after every pratice, or you will end up like my sister and she didn't understand why the low notes weren't playing.

After you wash your swab, iron it to make it flat. It helps in the lower body part.

Carefully scrape the old corkgrease off the cork before aplying new cork grease.

Wash your reeds out with water!

darkestone

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Chocolate ish Good

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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:31 am

Elenriel Nimloth

Deissdaemonea

-A note to woodwind players: If your key pads get sticky, I've found that a good way to get them unstickied is to take a new dollar bill (you know, when it's all crisp and new and stuff and you can feel the grain of the paper still) and carefully slide it underneath the key that's sticky. Press the key down for a few seconds, and, leaving the key pressed down, slide the dollar bill out. Sometimes this has to be done to one key a few times. whee But it works well. They also have special paper you can buy for it, but a dollar bill is easier to use. Hope that was somewhat useful.

Regular paper works to for that too, but it can't be cheapo copier paper. We usually used notebook paper.

Also, here's a tip from the woodwind instructor at my high school, for clarinetists. Take a Q-Tip (or cotton swab if we have to be generic), dip it in rubbing alcohol, and then insert it into each of the key holes. Whirl it around a couple times, then remove. This gets some of the gunk out from inside your holes.

And this is probably the only forum where that last sentence would not automatically be misconstrued.

I do have a question... Clarinet mouthpieces. Anyone got a really good way to clean those out? I used to have a little brush, but I lost it, and my mouthpiece is oh-so-gross.

Hmm if I'm correct can't you use the cloth that comes with the clarinet? (mine came with it...) well...I need to know if we can get new cloth cleaning things...@_@ mines has green stuff...ew....
-miyoko

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:24 pm

I have never heard of the brass soaking their instruments in the bathtub... That is so weird...

Chip the Mule Account

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Masquanade
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:42 pm

Awera

I have never heard of the brass soaking their instruments in the bathtub... That is so weird...

It's wierd but that is how you clean them without having to pay for it 3nodding .

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:54 pm

Well, I play a tuba, and the easiest way I've found to clean that monsterous instrument is to do the following:

Send it into the shop.

Yeah, I'd rather let the professionals take it apart than risk it myself. Tubas can get really nasty as well, especially if you're sharing with other tuba players like I do. We all just use separate mouthpieces. Anyway... the instrument is so massive and complex that you're better off just sending it in and paying for the cleaning. If you go somewhere good, you'll probably get a nice throughout cleaning for a decent price. Cleaning is important to keep the instrument functioning well. Then when you get it back, you'll want to oil up the valves and slides all nice so you can work with them easily. We have a couple of tubas that have been lacking oil, and now it takes two strong people pulling in opposite directions to get one of the slides out. sweatdrop That's not good...