Klarinet Archive - Posting 000724.txt from 1998/11

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Smell
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 10:25:25 -0500

Shelly Hatleberg wrote,
>>FYI - I have an older (I was recently told probably a 1960-something) wood
Noblet and have never noticed a "smell". However, the original case did smell
extremely musty. So much so I replaced it years ago. I would be curious
though what other people have to say about it.>>

I'm reluctantly becoming a student of this subject, thanks to my habit of
scavenging for wrecked but redeemable instruments in unlikely places. Opening
up a case from somebody's dank basement can release a stench that would choke
a goat. Mold and mildew aside, the local insect population often uses an
instrument case as a mausoleum. (Now, nobody go wailing about a few wispy
spider corpses in a Bb clarinet, please. I dumped about a pint of dead bugs,
including big hairy wasps and fat long-leggedy beetles, out of the bell of my
"as is" bass sax.)

Ferree's Tools (www.backbone1.com/ferree) sells a bore brush made of horsehair
for washing out clarinets. Basically it's a bottle brush, also available in a
larger size for saxophones. The horsehair is soft enough not to scratch the
bore, but stiff enough to remove things like the quantity of fleshy reddish
and black fungus I found inside a C Melody saxophone from the Roaring Twenties
that I washed out in the utility sink yesterday. Clarinets are sweet little
things compared to saxes, where the curved bell nourishes horrors unspeakable.
That fungus looked and smelled like something H. P. Lovecraft would have
written about: "Noisome leprous growths oozing with pestilential..." (you get
the idea). Needless to say when there's something like that growing in the
bore, all the corks and pads pick up the stink and have to go; not that I
would have kept those pads anyway, since they'd turned black and had The Curse
of the Mummy's Tomb: They crumbled to the touch.

The soap to use for metal and rubber instruments is Mr. Clean, either the
Ultra or Regular formula. But what should we use on a wooden clarinet?
Murphy's Oil Soap? It's designed for washing wood furniture without ruining
it. What do professionals use?

For de-stinking the case, I wash it out with detergent on a sponge, then rinse
with the sponge, then set the case open to the sunlight to dry for several
hours. That's usually enough. If I can still smell something I don't want to
know about, I rub dry baking soda into the dry lining, then vacuum it (a
suggestion from someone on the classicsax.com bulletin board). The
disadvantage to baking soda is that the residue can be difficult to vacuum out
of pile fabrics. Back in September, Judy Figi recommended a new spray-on
product, Febreze. It comes in two strengths. I bought the stronger one. The
label indicates that Febreze neutralizes odor rather than just covering it up
with another smell. However, the product does contain a strong perfume-like
fragrance that I find unpleasant. The label also warns that the product may
discolor some fabrics. It darkened the velvet in the two cases where I tried
it, although this was an improvement, since the fabric had faded. Febreze
worked in these cases. However, I think the baking soda and sunlight routine
does the job as well or better, for less money, without leaving behind another
scent.

If the case lining is too disgusting to salvage, removing it and replacing it
isn't difficult and will save the price of a new case. The H. Bettoney metal
clarinet I restored last month came with a case in okay condition, but with
one latch missing. It's an ugly case, the kind that lets the clarinet dangle
and rotate insecurely between a pair of wooden brackets, with extra-tacky
screaming red shag lining, blackened everywhere the tarnished clarinet touched
it. I was scrounging around for replacement latches, but, by one of life's
odd coincidences, the same weekend I finished work on the clarinet, I found a
higher quality case, empty, for 25 cents at a yard sale. The clarinet sounded
better than I'd expected, so I figured it was worth taking a bit of trouble to
give it a nicer home. The hardware and the outside of the case were in
excellent condition, but inside, the velvet lining had rotted. Also, the case
had no place to put parts; and the contoured compartment for the mouthpiece
and neck assembly was too tight for my horn.

I ripped out all the padding and lining (carefully, so I could use the old
lining as a pattern for cutting a new one), routed out the wood where
necessary to make my clarinet fit properly, and modified the contoured
section to lift out like a tray, so that I can use the space underneath for
the lyre, swab, reeds and doodads. (Few parts of the clarinet stick down far
enough to take up much of that wasted space. The metal clarinet lifts out of
the case in only two pieces, but I think this modification would prove
inconvenient for a wooden clarinet, since it would be too risky to leave the
pieces in the tray when it's lifted out. The sections might roll onto the
floor.) Then I re-lined the interior, including the new parts compartment in
the bottom. For the marching lyre, I made a hold-down, fastened to the
lining, of a cardboard strip covered with the velvet. I open the hinge on the
lyre, slide the back of the lyre under this strip and then close the hinged
part over the strip, so that the lyre doesn't rattle around loose in the case.
For padding the places that need it, such as the inside of the lid, I had some
batting lying around from another project. The half-yard of crushed velvet
for this small case cost me $2.30 at Minnesota Fabrics. To hold everything
together, I used Sobo Premium Craft and Fabric Glue (made by Delta and
available from fabric and arts-and-crafts supply stores, such as Pearl, Calico
Corners or Minnesota Fabrics). The lyre hold-down also needed a few stitches
to fasten it securely to the lining at each end.

The job didn't take long. I started and finished it during one TV football
game (Redskins, not worth watching with more than one eye this year). Freshly
polished, repadded and lying in clean, new velvet, the silver-plated clarinet
looks much classier, more like a musical instrument and less like, well, like
something I found for 20 bucks at a yard sale. Total cost for the "new" case
and materials to refurbish it: less than $3, plus about two and a half hours
of work. I've put away the original case, because, who knows, someday I
might need it. (After I'm dead, probably someone will rummage through my
stuff and say, "Feh! Why'd she keep THAT?!")

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To the tune of Beethoven's Fifth:

This is a mess!
This is a mess!
I'm gonna barf, I'm gonna retch, I'm gonna heave,
Go get a mop, or get a towel, or use your sleeve,
Oh clean it up! (Oh clean it up!)
Oh clean it up! (Oh clean it up!)
THIS IS A GRUE-SOME MESS!

--"Author" in hiding after surviving childhood, sort of.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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