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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000006.txt from 2003/04

From: LJBlib@-----.com
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Mildew in the case
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2003 08:48:38 -0500

I once bought an eBay oboe that had such bad mildew , not only inside the
case, but permeating the very wood of the instrument. Since it was delivered
in the shocking days of the 9-11 World Trade bombing I failed to compalin
about it in time.
All of the solutions mentioned, sunlight, baking soda etc were tried
and helped some. I wiped the wood of oboe with a damp soapy rag and dried
thoroughly, but it still smelled. Drastic measures were taken at this point,
since it was hopeless as is, and possibly dangerous to anyone with a mold
allergy. My grandsons, the ice hockey players, use Febreeze to deodorize
their sweaty hockey pads, so I sprayed the entire oboe, inside and out with
Febreeze, avoiding soaking pads and drying as soon as possible. This took
several treatments, in addition to lots of fresh air but eventually it quit
smelling of both mildew and Febreeze. Even the case cleaned up surprisingly
well, although I never used it again because it was in bad shape. The oboe,
with a few adjustments, plays well and no longer smells. This treatment is
advisable only for extreme cases such as this, where it basically was a good
instrument and useless in the moldy condition .
Yet another question to ask, when buying on eBay, along with queries about
rusted screws, damaged silver, cracks etc...if posible I try to get students
to buy a decent new instrument, but there are times when economics forces the
risk of auctioned instruments. Now that schools are starting oboe players as
young as age nine, parents are often unwilling or unable to meet the price of
a good new instrument, and the ones the schools provide are usually the
cheapest and most unplayable models. Lois Barton