 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: beejay
Date: 2001-09-20 11:56
The metal bell on my basset horn is starting to get grungy on the inside where it's difficult to reach. Does anyone have some suggestions for clearning please?
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2001-09-20 12:50
Any repairer or more specifically a brass repairer would be able to acid bath the bell which usually gets any rubbish, especially verdigris off. I assume the bell is plated. There are 2 usual dipping solutions that will clean up this sort of thing but the best is phosphoric acid. Dont try it unsupervised because you need to get the dilution right and have a vat large enough to dip the whole piece at once. It should be neutralised with an alkaline soap afterwards. It is important to note that the plating on the inside of any instrument is done separately from outside plating as the plating process does not like to go inside and must be specifically directed. The quality of the inside plating may not be as good as the outside.
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Author: Aaron
Date: 2001-09-20 14:15
Either pull a large cotton cloth through the bell alone after you have run some water through it to maybe loosten the grunge a bit. If further cleaning is needed take it to a repair tech for cleaning at most music stores. There are the acid baths....however the acid puts me off a bit. I would try to find someone who uses the ultrasonic cleaning baths. Sort of like the ultrasonic baths like you would get a wedding ring cleaned in at the jewlery store, but large enough to place a tuba in.
good luck
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Author: jmcaulay
Date: 2001-09-21 06:01
I would try some Diet Coca-Cola. No, really. There's no sugar to gum anything up, and the product has quite a bit of phosphoric acid, along with plenty carbonic acid. After removing any removable hardware, close the tone hole (if any... can you tell I'm not a basset expert?) with something, maybe a piece of duct tape, and soak it for a while, maybe a half hour or so. After the soaking, pour the liquid down the drain and use an old toothbrush to "scrub" any loose stuff away. Let me know if it doesn't work, and I'll owe you a Coke. Sure shouldn't hurt anything.
Regards,
John
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