A while back I gave up on the trumpet and sold the one I had to a friend. Then last week, I was in a music store and tried out a couple of trumpets and decided I wanted to try again with it, so I ended up buying a Winston trumpet. It has a black lacquer finish - actually very pretty. I currently have valve oil, slide grease and a cleaning cloth to wipe off the outside of the trumpet and also a mouthpiece brush. I do not have a snake. I do not play in a band. I play my trumpet at home for my own enjoyment. Is it absolutely necessary that I have a snake and if it is, does the trumpet have to be wet before I can run the snake through? I will appreciate any advice or opinions about this.

Carol K

hi! trumpet sounds fab!!

i would strongly advise to get a snake, at the end of the day whether you play in a band or not, your instrument is still going to get dirty and a dirty trumpet is a nasty trumpet. a decent snake is about £3-4 so you aint breskin the bank buying one.

it would be useful to wet the insrteument before you use it, it will probably ease up some grime!

jaime

reply to Jaime re Snake

I really do like my trumpet a lot and I took your advice and went and got a snake. You said it is probably better for the instrument to be wet when I run the snake through it. Do I actually have to put the trumpet in the bathtub or can I do this some other way? I was thinking that when I finish playing the trumpet each eve, that maybe I could run the snake through but not have to put the trumpet in the tub. I'm sure a tub bath for the trumpet needs to be done from time to time but hopefully not on a daily basis.

Carol K

Trumpet should be "bathed" about once a month or so. You don't need to completely clean it out every time you play. After you play, you should wipe the outside with your cleaning cloth (acid in perspiration can rot the lacquer, so this gets rid of sweaty marks!), wipe the mouthpiece out with a handkerchief or something similar, tip it upside down to let any condensation drip out (I don't know if you're supposed to take the tubing out and shake it with trumpets... you do with French horns...) and put it away until next time!

I think the snake only needs to be used when the trumpet is having a bath (lol that sounds funny) but I'm not sure... I don't play the trumpet... I'll try and get my brother (who does!) to post on here later.

hiya

sorry this post is late.

erm..... i 'bath' my trumpet about once every month, as cheeble says, you dont have to use the snake every night, just use it when you 'bath' it. Also as cheeble says, wipe the instrument other after each time you play and let the spit out using the spit keys, (we dont need to shake the tubes about! lol)

rember to clean your instrument though, it makes it bigger and alters the tunning, it also stops the slides from seizing up!

jaime

Just to be annoying..

What on earth is a snake??

QUOTE (Oddball @ Nov 27 2004, 07:54 PM)

Just to be annoying.. What on earth is a snake??

isn't it one of those long wiggly things with a little brush at each end?

yep, altho i never refered to it as a snake before! i normally call it a pull thro for my horn.

QUOTE (hornplayer @ Nov 28 2004, 04:02 PM)

yep, altho i never refered to it as a snake before! i normally call it a pull thro for my horn.

hehehe ok... i think snake is quite a cool name though!!!