Klarinet Archive - Posting 000066.txt from 2007/01

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] instrument acting odd....
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:57:00 -0500


Mark Sausville wrote,
>I have an orange tree in my back yard. While
>there are plenty of oranges, they don't taste
>very good, so it's no sacrifice to peel one and
>take a few smallish pieces and insert in the case.
>I change them out every few days. How dry
>they get over a couple of days is a fairly good
>indication of how dry it is in the case.

One cautionary note here: Orange peels in an unattended case may attract
wildlife. Mark Sausville sensibly takes the peels out every few days, but
some people evidently humidify the case with orange peels, stop playing
that instrument and forget about the peels. Bad things can happen. I've
bought several flea market instruments in which orange peels had rotted,
damaging the case lining and leaving a nasty stench. I don't think it's
any coincidence that I also found dead insects, including maggots and bees,
in those cases. I had to replace the linings. These insect mausoleums
were older instruments that had sat around unused, long enough for the
wooden cases to loosen up, providing easy entry for critters.

Up to a point, I'll re-line a case or clean up a messy instrument, but I've
also decided not to buy clarinets that had been over-humidified to the
point where I didn't want to deal with them. The worst one, just this past
summer, looked to me as if someone went crazy with the orange peels, making
the case not merely humid but damp, then didn't play that instrument any
more (waiting for it to rehydrate?) and forgot about it until, instead of
simply drying out, the peels in such a moist environment rotted to slime.
I found those formerly fresh and juicy orange peels not only in the lidless
doodad compartment but *inside* the bell, the barrel and both sections of
keys. (Think orange peels don't rot? Well, if you've ever found something
disgusting at the bottom of one of those cute little 5-pound wooden crates
of imported Clementines, where you can't see the bottom layer of fruit
until you've unpacked the box, then you know what I mean.) By the time the
clarinet ended up in a flea market, the mess had dried, though it had left
behind a perfume that would only appeal to an orc, but months or years
earlier, the disintegrating fruit peels had not only mildewed and rotted
the case lining but had destroyed the pads and corks, rusted the screws
solid in the holes and even damaged the instrument itself. Clarinet wood
isn't all that easy to rot, either--this was an extreme case,
obviously--but it had happened. Although it's possible that the
putrescence was only skin deep, with sound wood beneath, I wasn't willing
to pay money to find out.

Bottom line: Do as Mark Sausville does and replace those peels often (and
be alert to signs that vermin think this case would make a nice luxury
condominium), or use a humidifying device (such as a Dampit in the case or
a room humidifier) that doesn't smell like food. Either way, pay
attention. Normally hydrated wood (good thing) is not the same as
*chronically damp* wood (bad thing). Never leave an unplayed instrument
damp.

Lelia Loban

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org