Hi,

can anyone tell me the best way to clean my clarinet.

Thanks

Soph

Rather depends what you mean by 'clean'! I would hope you already use a pull through before you put it away. Other than that I just use a soft cloth to give the wood a bit of a polish before concerts, and I have a special silver polishing cloth for the keys, which I got from a jewllers when I bought a silver chain

Some of the following may not be necessary all the time.

• Remove the reed after playing and put it in a reedcase, this allows it to properly dry.
  
• Turn the clarinet upside down (bell facing up) and drop down a pull through cloth to remove all the moisture, you may have to do this a few times.
  
• With some tissue wipe the cork to remove the old cork grease and then apply some more.
  
• Use a polishing cloth clean the outside of the clarinet and remove the fingerprints off the keys
  
• Using a dusting stick clean underneath and between the keys with the toothbrush end and using the duster end brush off the dust.
  
• Using a mouthpiece brush clean the inside of the mouthpiece and then soak it in some luke warm water to lift of any dirt inside the mouthpiece and then rinse.
  
• If you have any sticky pads then place a cigarette paper (Rizzla) underneath and close the pad. Make sure that the sticky side is down. Pull out the paper with the pad still closed to remove moisture.

Alway use a swab after every use of the clarinet to remove the moisture and just give it a quick polish.

Plenty of good advice there.

The use of a pull-through after each playing is essential. I'd advise against using those feathery mops you can get as cleaning devices - they'll leave fibres behind, and won't clean out the inside of your clarinet as effectively.

With cleaning the mouthpiece, I cannot emphasise enough - it's luke warm water you use, not hot. Not unless you'd like some 'interesting' things to happen to your mouthpiece.......

Aaargghhh! You should never pull-through bell to barrel - the pullthrough will be extremely likely to snag on the register key protrusion (have a look down the bore and you'll see what I mean). ALWAYS drop the pullthrough in at the barrel end, and swab through 2-3 times. Also, never use a pullthrough to clean a mouthpiece as this will damage it. Use a soft cloth and gently rinse in tepid water once a week or so.

Sorry for my somewhat dramatic reaction, but I've spent many a frustrating hour (not-so-)patiently removing jammed pullthroughs with a crochet needle...

Don't do what my friend did!!

She thought she should sterilse her clarinet as there was a bit of mould...so she put it in a tub of MILTON sterilising fluid...

The clarinet turned a nice shade of green!!!

A green clarinet?!

yeh my clarinet teacher washed it with hot water by mistake (she'd just finished washing dishes).
her mouthpiece went green... oooerr....

Must have been the chlorine from the sodium hypochlorite in the sterilising fluid!

aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The which way do you swab thing has finally reached this board! Anyone who reads the woodwind.org board will know what I mean! Do a search there and you get so many contractictory statements you won't have a clue what is right.

As long as you unfurl the swab properly before sticking it down the instrument it really doesn't matter. It is equally likely to snag on the register key tube but I agree that unsticking it if it has come from the barrel end is easier as there is more chance of getting hold of it.

Occaisionally pulling a swab through a mouthpiece is fine - the most likely problem is if the metal weight at the end of the swab is uncovered you may scratch something. The material most mouthpieces are made out of is really quite hard, an occaisional swabbing won't be a problem. I prefer to rinse with luke warm water but if needs must the swab goes through.

I'm afraid we'll have to disagree on this one then! I have to say I've yet to experience one jammed due to pulling top to bottom, yet I must've unstuck about 50 or so jammed the other way round (tip: a long, thin crochet hook is a useful tool, but obviously use with care!). Apparently, the register key tube is slightly angled towards the bell (on some instruments at least), increasing the chance of it snagging. My first question when attending woodwind repair workshops is invariably "how do I remove a jammed pullthrough without using a sledgehammer", and the response has always been never to pull through bell to barrel (and to use an appropriate swab of course!).

After my latest mouthpiece purchase, Packer's advised me never to use a pullthrough to clean it as continued use would damage the rails, baffle etc. Whilst Ebonite and crystal mouthpieces have a long lifespan, your average vandoren/selmer plastic one needs loving care to sustain its life. Agreed, occasional swabbing shouldn't cause damage, but it's better to use only the cloth part of the swab to wipe it over.

When all's said and done, any cleaning is good cleaning in some cases. Just casting my mind back to one particularly memorable occasion when, after prising a rather 'ripe' looking reed away from a crusty mouthpiece, something crawled out to meet me...



I hasten to add, the aforementioned mouthpiece was not mine, but a former student's.