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Oh, the horror - gunk in toneholes

Author: VermontJM
Date: 2005-04-04 07:54

So during rehearsal the other night, my low Eb was not matching the rest of the section. I couldn't really tell if it was just me, or a mix of the others... so... I checked the pitch and realized that that note was playing a good 20 cents FLAT. This is really odd for my instrument (I am consistantly sharp and rarely have issues with being flat...) This lead me to wonder if there was something in the tone hole. Sooo... I removed the key and cleaned the tone hole. GROSS. Nasty, disgusting gunk and goo came out. I still can't believe it- I am REALLY diligent about swabbing well and making sure the water is out of holes before packing up. This further lead me to remove ALL of my trill keys and clean up. This helped the pitch. I am pretty sure those holes have not been looked at since the instrument was overhauled in 2000. I plan on removing all of the upper joint keywork and cleaning up sometime this week. (The thought of that nastiness in my instrument will keep me up at night...)

So I pose the question-

If I am maniacally diligent about cleaning my instrument and I am getting goo like this, can you imagine what the other clarinets in my section must look like when all they do is run a swab through once and throw it in its case?? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

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