 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Hurstfarm
Date: 2013-01-02 18:15
One for the techs... I recently found a sharp edge on the thumb key bush on my well-used but well-maintained professional Bb, which on closer inspection turned out to be a small piece of the silver plate peeling away. What seems to have happened is that the silver has worn through around the rim of the hole, where it makes the airtight seal with the thumb, and the plating on the flat part has started to separate in several places. I've addressed the immediate problem by polishing off the roughness with a very fine abrasive, but would welcome any views on the merits and practicalities of having the bush removed and re-plated/replaced versus leaving it part-plated. It's just cosmetic, i suppose, but a blemish on an otherwise superb instrument! Many thanks.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-01-02 18:35
You should have it replated as this will protect the base metal from pitting and corroding. On clarinets where the thumb tube plating has worn, the exposed areas of the underlying metal can wear away leaving sharp edges.
What will most likely be done is the thumb tube is removed, then the plating on the inside removed (if needed) and the damaged area tidied up and polished to a bright shine, then the thumb tube is replated and then refitted.
While the thumb tube is mainly used for F#, if this note is already slightly flat, then extra plating could flatten it further if the plating is applied thickly and it may not fit back into the joint easily without enlarging the hole in the back of the top joint slightly. But that's only if an excessive amount of silver is plated onto it.
But usually replating the thumb tube won't have much of an effect on the tuning. F# is such a variable note and chances are it may be on the sharpish side.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2013-01-02 18:53
A lot depends on the quality of the base metal underneath.
My 52 year old Leblancs have unplated nickel silver and the sharp edge on thumb bush has worn slightly over the years to provide a very slightly countersunk profile that is in fact far more comfortable to play than a sharp edge.
On current rate of wear I would estimate at least another 100+ years before it presents any problem.
Will keep you posted !!
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2013-01-02 20:25
I had this problem, which I addressed by buying a bottle of silver-plating solution such as you frequently see advertised on a well-known auction site. I was pretty skeptical, but there wasn't much to lose by trying it. In the event, I was surprised to find that this stuff does work as advertised: it manages to initiate a chemical reaction with bare metal that deposits a layer of silver, and the silver does attach properly, so it's not simply like using paint. The only problem is that the chemical reaction gets turned off once the metal is coated with silver, so it's inevitable with this method that you get much thinner quasi-plating than you would like. This means that it won't be all that long before it wears off in the same way as the original plating did. But you can repeat the process, so it's a question of how acidic your particular sweat is - if it lasts a few months for you, that's probably good enough. I used it on a spare instrument that I don't play regularly, so I don't have direct statistics - but I also repaired a tap where the brass was showing, and that lasted one or two months of daily use.
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Author: Steven Ocone
Date: 2013-01-03 23:19
It may be easy to replace with a new one, but the plating gets worn off this area easily. You might just clean it thoroughly and touch up the offending area with nail polish. If this doesn't work it is easily removed.
Steve Ocone
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