 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Irwin
Date: 2001-06-21 23:38
My teacher was aghast the other day when I ran my silk swab through the entire length of the horn including the mouthpiece. He said that good mouthpieces should be swabbed only very infrequently inasmuch as the swabbing will eventually change the characteristics of the mouthpiece. Anyone want to comment on this?
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Author: Sara
Date: 2001-06-22 00:06
He's right, you should never pull a swab all the way through the mouthpiece. I always take the silk end and twist it a little to make it a little stiffer, and just pull a length of silk back and forth through it to get the spit out of it.
Sara
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Author: Suzanne
Date: 2001-06-22 00:33
I just dab at it with the swab, and occassionally soak it in 50/50 vinegar/water solution. Constant swabbing can slowly rub away the inside, changing the dimensions. Even the most minute change can make a difference when you're talking about a mouthpiece.
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Author: Marcia Nottle
Date: 2001-06-22 01:06
Why only the mouthpiece? Does swabbing the bore of the instrument alter anything adversly?
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Author: Bob Curtis
Date: 2001-06-22 02:09
I have a Selmer HS* Crystal mouthpiece which I have owned since 1948 and swab it along with the entire horn EVERY TIME I PLAY THE INSTRUMENT!! I have never had any problems. Of course, I have an old chamois swab which I have had for at least 30 years and use it as my major swab. Yes, I do clean the swab frequently, and the interior of my instrument looks almost as good as it did when I bought it in 1953. So, I wonder about not cleaning as frequently, etc. as some have said. True, I know that this is a CRYSTAL mouthpiece which is one of the reasons I got it, and lack of warpage was another. But, hey, I've been around long enough to know how to be careful in my cleaning and I dont do any stupid things like put a washer or hex nut on the end of my swab to use as a weight.
Yes. clean the mouthpiece and get rid of all the slime, gunk, and any other name you widh to call the stuff which collects there; unless, that is, you want to play a mouthpiece with all that stuff inside your mouthpiece and in your mouth!!
Good Luck,
Bob Curtis
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2001-06-22 03:03
Perhaps some of our mouthpiece makers can give you their expert opinions on this one. Personally, I never put anything into the mouthpiece and just run cool tap water through it, shake out the excess water (I concentrate on holding it firmly so that I don't fling it across the room), and set it aside to dry while cleaning and swabbing the rest of the clarinet. By the time I'm done the mouthpiece is dry. Oral hygiene is the most important part of keeping the mouthpiece from getting gunked up. Never play just after eating - like the old mother's advice -- don't go swimming (play your horn) for an hour after eating. If you do - brush your teeth first.
I have a friend that is a high school band teacher friend that helped me beta test my cleaner and we scooped up the mouthpieces from entire clarinet section of the orchestra (this is a huge high school - twenty clarinets) and did a visual (using an intense fiber optic light) inspection and evaluation (smell test) of the presence of nasty bugs and gunk. We inspected the tip and rails with a disecting microscope and had the students fill out a questionaire on their cleaning practices.
Results - more than half were in bad shape - smell, wear on tip, rails, visable gunk inside the crevices of the interior of the mouthpiece, etc. etc.. There was no correlation between the bad buildup, etc. and what they said they did to clean the mouthpiece (a truth variable here!). Those that did nothing were sometimes the best looking (we took the age and type - plastic, hard rubber, etc. into account). There are too many variables here (including how the students handle their mouthpieces) to give a conclusion -- just some observations on your mouthpieces.
The Doctor
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Author: SALT
Date: 2001-06-22 07:27
The thing about running cold water through your mouthpiece and putting it aside to dry while you clean the rest of your horn may work well when you're somewhere that you actually have the time and facilities to do that, but when you're in a high school band and you only have a couple minutes to clean your instrument, take it apart, put it in the case, put the case in your band locker, and put away your chairs and stands before the bell rings to go to your next class then that's not exactly the most convenient method of cleaning your mouthpiece, the most convenient method is just running the swab through it at the same time you clean the rest of the horn. The sad fact is I was the only clarinet in my section of nine that actually took the time to run the swab through my horn everyday. I don't know if the other people ever clean their instruments or not!
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-06-22 10:33
This kind of study is funded by dedication to hosting a parasitic worm called knowledge. The larger it gets the more it wants to feed, at any cost in time and effort to the host, who obliges of course.
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Author: Anji
Date: 2001-06-22 10:50
Crystal mouthpieces are very hard, harder than the interior of your horn.
Hard rubber mouthpieces MAY be slowly eroded by Pull-throughs.
I rinse, not that I can prove it makes any difference.
Finding a favorite mouthpiece is a chore, so taking care is a smaller worry.
anji
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Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2001-06-22 12:16
Irwin:
See the following link for an interesting discussion. I've decided FWIW that it is no better or worse to swab a mpc as compared to washing it, based on the previous discussions here.
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=37272&t=37141
Matt
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2001-06-22 12:32
Just swab your mouthpiece gently. Dont damage the reed table rails. It is a good idea to keep your mouthpiece clean so dont be fraid to clean it.
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Author: jerry
Date: 2001-06-22 17:33
Yes! It would be nice if some of the mouthpiece mfgr's. would respond to this question.
IMHO, I think that many of us would not live long enough to notice any effects in the playability of a mouthpiece that has been well taken care of including swabbing (with silk or some other very low abraisive matreial) an a regular basis. I would go as far as to say that there are probably enough abraisive particles in tap water to do as much damage as the swab over a given period of time. Then too, not cleaning at all could likely contribute more to poor sound quality just from the build up saliva (and all those goodies hanging around in the mouth looking for an exit -- does everyone brush before playing?).
Kinda makes you want to give up kissing.
IMHO - Of course, I'm still a novice at this (not the kissing part).
~ jerry
Still in Clarinet Boot Camp
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2001-06-25 14:00
But, you were pulling the swab through that gorgeous new Opus clarinet. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.
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Author: Mindy
Date: 2001-06-26 14:15
Yeah I am at music camp right now as some of you know. And I just learned that yesterday acctually. I heard that the mp can break and stuff like that, I gotta go
bye
Mindy
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