Pet peeve: poor instrument hygiene

[jazztptplyr]

As a teacher, I make sure that my students, at a minimum, clean their instruments twice a year. I know they do this because we set aside several days post-concert to do it in class.

However, time and again, I am appalled whenever I try friends' horns, buy horns off of other people, etc, and find poorly maintained equipment. The first thing I do when I acquire a new horn is to give it a bath and then lubricate it up to my standards. I understand some people have multiple horns and some sit for a while, but I would think it would be common courtesy to clean an instrument before selling.

I think we on TH should try to uphold a standard of care in buying and selling and strive to ensure that we teach that ethic to our students and colleagues!

*Stepping off soapbox*

What are everyone else's thoughts on this?

[Turkle]

I purchased a modern horn off eBay one time that was so disgusting I couldn't even bring myself to even touch it. I brought it immediately to the shop for a full in-and-out cleaning.

Revolting.

Clean your horn! It is so easy!
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Yamaha 8310Z trumpet
Yamaha 8310Z flugel
Curry 3.

[trickg]

I just recently bought a used Strad, and it was both bone dry, and very dirty. It also has some minor damage, so it's getting ready to go to my tech, who will do a once-over on the whole thing, which includes a sonic cleaning.
_________________
Patrick Gleason
- Jupiter 1600i, ACB 3C, Warburton 4SVW/Titmus RT2
- Brasspire Unicorn C
- ACB Doubler

"95% of the average 'weekend warrior's' problems will be solved by an additional 30 minutes of insightful practice." - PLP

[dr_trumpet]

[Croquethed]

Back in the day, I used to change my own oil and the simpler mechanical stuff on my old beater cars. Today I'm completely out of my element there, but the monthly trumpet soak/clean and the every 100-mile bike chain clean/gear and brake adjustments are my new forms of simple mechanic therapy.

OTOH, I guess maybe a lot of people who end up selling horns are doing it because they didn't like them or play them much...so I wouldn't expect a lot of TLC on them.

[1jazzyalex]

Hm, I've got a medium sized ultrasonic cleaner and a larger one, the larger one may be capable of cleaning a whole horn with the slides removed, with only the bell sticking out .... wonder if I should hang onto that baby (it's for sale on Ebay right now).
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Yamaha 8335LA with Blessing 3C, 5C, Schilke 11A4A

[LargoBone]

I wish my classmates set aside an HOUR a year to clean out their horns...some of those things are disgusting. Some of them use the same horn for marching band and everything and never bother to give it a bath or snake it or anything! I have several horns now so not all of them get cleaned every couple of months but all at least once a year and some of them don't even get played in that time.
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1926 King Liberty (small bore)-Conn 6 cornet
King Cleveland 602 Cornet-Blessing 7C
Allora Aere Black Plastic Trumpet-Faxx 1-1/2C, Bach 5C, Allora Aere 7C
Regiment Bugle for scout camp-Bach 5C

[jazztptplyr]

[strangedejavu506]

I religiously keep my horns clean but I was amazed in college how many people would eat, drink, chew gum etc all while playing. My first Bach strad had a redo lupus amount of rot from similar abuse. I ended up replacing the lead pipe because it had pinhole leaks. i now clean my horns religiously about every month or so even if they are not played frequently. Just recently we got a shop that does ultrasonic cleaning and I think I am going to start adding this to my routine once a year to get the crap off it that I cannot get.

[1jazzyalex]

[rockford]

For my young students I suggest they rinse out their mouthpiece everyday and their tuning slide once a week. No snakes or anything like that, just rinse them out in a sink with fresh water. Between that and oiling the valves daily, (one at a time!) these little steps keep the instrument in satisfactory shape for the first year or two. As they get older and start playing more we get more involved, but these simple steps early on work well.
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Bill Siegfried
NY/Mt. Vernon Bach trumpets. Yamaha flugelhorn and piccolo A/Bb, Monette and Hammond mouthpieces. Fender and Peavey Cirrus Bass Guitars. Ampeg and Genz-Benz amps. Embraer 170/175/190.

[yourbrass]

[Dennis78]

I keep my horns very clean, but one another comes I usually play it a little with the mouthpiece that came with it before I clean it. I'm not to worried about what may be lurking
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a few different ones

[p76]

What I have found interesting is that the horns I play more often seem to stay cleaner - just did my half-yearly clean on my A6T cornet, which I play at the very least two hours per week and usually about 5 - hardly a bit of gunk in it.

On the other hand, some of my trumpets that I play more rarely seem to be dirtier when I clean them.

Perhaps I'm blowing the crud out of the cornet with more use...

But to agree with some posters here, I'm amazed and disgusted at what some people do to their horns - potato chips and coke 2 minutes before playing....yuk.

Cheers,
Roger
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Bb - Selmer Radial, Yamaha YTR634, Kanstul 1001, Kanstul 700.
C - Yamaha 641.
Cornet - Olds Ambassador A6T, Besson 723, Olds Ambassador Long.
Flugel - Kanstul 1525
Mpc. - ACB 3CS, ACB 3ES, Curry 3BBC, Kanstul FB Flugel

[Brad361]

Pretty sure I've heard that Mr. Schilke walked around the shop with a leather "holster" on his belt that held a toothbrush. (I visited the old Schilke location on Wabash MANY times, only saw Mr. Schilke a few times, so I don't recall seeing that, but that's what I've heard).

I agree that students' horns (and many adults') are often full of disgusting junk, I've seen in lessons. I've even made copies of Don Herman's very detailed instructions on how to clean a horn and given it to kids, but most never do it.

Brad
_________________
When asked if he always sounds great:
"I always try, but not always, because the horn is merciless, unpredictable and traitorous." - Arturo Sandoval

[jerikfp]

Could not agree more with cleanliness...

[Dieter Z]

I once bought a used Yamaha 2335 off eBay.

After the first blow I thought I wasted my money. Sounded very restricted and thin.

Took the tuning slide out to check for red rot. HALF of the lead pipe was full of old gunk.

Cleaned the whole instrument and played it. Now it plays like a charm and sound great. More like a pro horn.
_________________
B & H Sovereign 928
Conn 80A
F. Besson Brevette Kanstul made
B&S Challenger II 3137 rl
Buescher 400 - 225 (WWII)
Benge 90C
Eastman 540 D/Eb
ACB Fluegelhorn
Selmer Picc
ACB mouthpieces for most of my playing

[dershem]

I recently bought a new (1955) horn, and took it to The Guy in Anaheim*, who gave it a thorough servicing, including an acid bath, and a couple of hours of talk about proper maintenance. He was happy to hear that I'd been to the Navy School of Music, and had maintained their regimen (clean your horn at leastevery month, more if you play it a lot) of maintenance on my horns. Just cleaning and proper alignment brought that horn from a 3 to about an 8 (more would require replacing parts, which is not in the budget right now).
What bugs me is why people don't maintain. It takes very little time, and is worth every minute spent.
*Those who know, know.

[jerikfp]

I don't get it either but I'm OCD on cleanliness with everything. Cars, house, etc.

[Christian K. Peters]

Hello all,
I have gotten into the habit of swabbing my leadpipe out after I have played. After having to replace leadpipes due to red rot, I though it might be a good idea.
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Christian K. Peters
Schilke Loyalist since 1976