Klarinet Archive - Posting 000768.txt from 2000/10

From: George Kidder <gkidder@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] The guck inside your mouthpiece
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 17:13:23 -0400

I have had good results for some time now with a "mouthpiece swab" made of
a piece of old T-shirt, a string and a weight. The Weight is covered with
tape so as not to risk scratching the mouthpiece. It gets the moisture out
without the trauma of pulling a full-sized swab through that small hole.

A sidelight on this: Back when (in my other clarinet life in the 40's and
50's) I owned a Boozy and Hawks "Ebonite" clarinet, and used the mouthpiece
that came with it. I also ran the regular swab through it, regularly.
Looking at that mouthpiece now, there isn't a sharp edge anywhere on it.
Indeed, the tip has a marked flare, where the swab ate away at it over the
years (perhaps 8 years of playing). So the caution to avoid doing this
seems not to be an "old wives tale" at all.

At 07:46 AM 10/13/00 -0400, you wrote:
>A mouthpiece brush (looks like a tiny black Christmas tree with no
>decorations) with a spot of dish soap is fine to clean a mouthpiece with.
>however, brush gently, and run lukewarm water through the mouthpiece while
>you are cleaning it. One should never allow "gunk" to accumulate inside a
>mouthpiece. Besides making it play poorly, it is unsanitary.
>
>Patty Smith
>
>
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George Kidder
Bar Harbor, ME

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