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Clean Your Leadpipe!!



 
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HornnOOb
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 3:25 pm    Post subject: Clean Your Leadpipe!! Reply with quote

Seems obvious, but good grief! I bathe my trumpet regulary and assumed that the lead pipe was properly cleaned with a few swipes down the tube with a snake brush followed by a jet of cler water. WRONG!

For the past 3-4 weeks, I've noticed that my playing was sounding a bit stuffy and there seemed to be more resistance in the blow than is usual. Having just given the horn a bath, I had no reason suspect anyting inside the horn was amiss.

Well, today, I took a bright LED light and took a good hard look down the leadpipe. Instead of the clean, polished & shinny look is should have, I noticed that the interrior of the pipe was more or less a dull coated apearance. I thought this was strange due to the recent bath and brief brushing I gave it. Anywho, I ran a twisted paper towel swab down the pipe and it returned with some faint green residue. A light bulb moment insued and I decided to brush the crap out of the leadpipe.

I sprayed some Simple Green solution down the pipe and let it soak for about 10 minutes. I then took my snake brush and brushed the length of the pipe for several minutes. I then ran clean water to wash out what ever came loose. I then used the twisted paper towel swab to dry in out.

After replacing the tuning slide, I put some valve oil down the pipe and blew it through the horn. The difference in my intonation and the free-blowing nature of my trumpet was simply amazing. What I thought was me and my tired chops, turn out to be a lightly (barely noticeable) dirty leadpipe. After thoroughly cleaning it, my horn played and sounded like it did when it was brand new!

My hunch is that a lot of players who are wondering about their tone quality, might do well to scrub the crap out of their leadpipe -- even if it looks generally clean. From this point on, I intend to swab-out my leadpeipe after every playing. I makes a hell of a difference!!
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dmc60
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Joined: 06 May 2019
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PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2019 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm surprised no one in 8 years commented about this post.

I just cleaned an old Imperial leadpipe with bore paste, then rifle bore wire brush, then many swabs with a piece of cotton patch, then a cotton patch with valve oil. Looks nice and clean, and seems to play with nicer intonation, and much less effort.
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Martin Imperial
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mrhappy
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 6:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dmc60 wrote:
I'm surprised no one in 8 years commented about this post.


Guess they're all busy cleaning their leadpipes!!
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dmc60
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 6:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lol...

I think that this topic is covered on another thread or two. :lol
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Martin Imperial
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 7:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even though old, topical subject. Would anyone know why it wouldn't have been cleaned with just a snake/
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Don Herman rev2
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Joined: 03 May 2005
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A soft snake may not (will not IME) remove harder deposits in the leadpipe (and the rest of the tubing) that are basically "cemented" to the tube. Like scale on a sink or water pipe, or plaque on teeth, usually requires a hard brush (not recommended for a trumpet) or a chemical to dissolve them.

IME/IMO - Don
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dmc60
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 10:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don H,

I agree with your comment.

I suppose a lengthy soak in CLR might be in order for some of these neglected horns. ( I read That this was used successfully on another thread here at TH, and the people commenting are evidently veterans in the experience of wind instruments.) I think the problem is that more people including myself haven’t considered the accumulation that can occur in a wind instrument if not aggressively cleaned on a fairly regular basis.

I think the trick is to remove the deposits on the internal surfaces without destroying the instrument.

I for one will be undertaking some monthly or at a very minimum quarterly deep cleaning efforts.
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Martin Imperial
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lanzoar
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2019 4:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I first started playing It was on an old cornet that hadn't been washed in years (possibly ever). I gave it to my band instructor who said it was all good to go. Obviously 5th grade me didn't know any better and played on it for a year after.
Then I got a competent teacher that noticed I was having a bit of trouble staying in tune and whatnot. He did a once over on it and almost puked. He paid out of pocket to have it deep cleaned for me. My playing improved so much over the next month that my band instructor asked me to audition for the honor band.
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