Klarinet Archive - Posting 000100.txt from 2010/09

From: Jennifer Jones <helen.jennifer@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Cleaning mouthpiece deposits
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:57:16 -0400

>> On Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Gary Van Cott <gary@-----.com> wrote:
>>> Seems rather unnecessary to me. Be sure to avoid hot water which can
>>> damage a mouthpiece.
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Jennifer Jones" <helen.jennifer@-----.com> Sunday, September 05, 2010 8:27 PM
>> Is this the vulcanized rubber or some other kind of mp? My old
>> vulcanized rubber mp turned green in the smog where I grew up. Would
>> washing the mp w/soap and water reduce the salt etc. deposits that
>> occur on the beak?

On Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 9:53 PM, Mike Vaccaro <mike@-----.com> wrote:
> Try vinegar to get the discoloration out of the mouthpiece. Soak it.
> Mike

Is this for the deposits or the green color? I would expect it
wouldn't help with the green-ness. I think that is caused by the
ozone. So then the question is what are the deposits made of and does
vinegar work for that. I know vinegar is helpful for hard water
deposits on the faucets at home; whether this is magnesium/calcium
deposited soap or inorganic salts from the water I am not sure. I
like to imagine that the deposits on the mouthpiece are dried proteins
(lysozyme!) and stuff in the mucous. Acid does tend to solubilize
things faster than water... It might speed up the dissolving of
precipitated proteins and other soluble biological compounds. Maybe
some of it is calculus, like the stuff plaque producing microbes
deposit on your teeth that the dentist scrapes off. Though I don't
get much tartar. It takes a couple weeks for much to build up and I
scrape it off with a fingernail pretty regularly. It is also only
recently that I've been playing much at all and this is only at home,
so the reed-mp setup stays together for probably a week at a time. I
wipe out the mp and wipe off the reed periodically. Sometimes I have
to straighten out the tip of the reed, when it gets warped, though it
is not necessary, if I am willing to tolerate five minutes or so of
stuffy unstable playing.

Some suggested denture cleaner
Some suggested lime away or CLR, which sounds terrible. Other people
thought that sounded nasty too.

Should the cork be removed and replaced after soaking?

I see Lelia Loban has a nice tidy post on this:
http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2000/02/000211.txt

Reviewing the archives on topics like mpc gunk can be a nightmare: a
search for mouthpiece deposits will give a nice demonstration. While
a search can give you several options. It is probably easiest for joe
blo to ask people about this.

On the way to becoming a filthy, reeking, slobbery orc.

-Jennifer
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