Klarinet Archive - Posting 000290.txt from 2000/02

From: "George W. Kidder III" <gkidder@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] alcohol and mouthpieces
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 20:45:28 -0500

I can vouch for the damaging effect of very strong ethanol (95%) on a
(fortunately cheap) plastic mouthpiece - it cracked it! I do not know what
the effect would be on hard rubber, or whether a more reasonable
concentration (say 50%) would have done anything, or whether the alcohol
used in the pre-loaded wipers (iso-propanol, I think) would be as damaging.
Don't have enough cheap mouthpieces to experiment on!

At 08:40 PM 2/2/00 -0800, you wrote:
>The use of swabs to at least partially disinfect clarinet parts sounds
>like a clever and effective idea, but it should come with a warning
>against using it on plastic mouthpieces. I've never had a problem (I
>don't use plastic), but I was convinced some time back from a very high
>authority (it was several subscribers to this list with personal
>experience) that alcohol can make the plastic brittle and fracture it,
>or make it susceptible to fracture.
>
>Bill Edinger
>
>"Music and wine are one." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
>
>
>
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George Kidder
Bar Harbor, ME

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