 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: markcr
Date: 2012-10-31 02:29
I was recently perusing eBay and stumbled upon a Selmer CL300 that looked to be in pretty good shape. The bid was only $20 bucks so I bid $40 and completely forgot about it. Low and behold I won it. It showed up yesterday and it is in really good shape. The only issue is that it has years of crap built up in the mouthpiece, upper and lower barrels. The pads and corks seem to be in good shape but that's only by visual inspection so far. How can I go about thoroughly cleaning the internals of this clarinet? Also, the high A key seems bent down pretty close to the top of the barrel but I've heard that the Selmers have a different ergonomic key layout. I can post pics if needed. Any help on that would also be appreciated. Thanks!
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-10-31 13:58
The Selmer CL300 is a plastic clarinet so soap and water is pretty much the way to go as far as cleaning goes. Ideally you would like to remove all of the keys and then clean out the bore and all of the tone holes with running water something like a small bottle brush or a test tube cleaning brush. I will note that this should only be attempted if you are confident that you will be able to reassemble the instrument properly afterwards.
If you don't feel confident about removing the keys then you can slip a piece of waxed paper under each of the closed keys and then run a damp pull-though swab down the bore of each joint several times (you may need to use a couple of different swabs if the bore is really dirty).
As far as the "high A key be bent down close to the barrel", I'm going to assume that you mean the throat A key on the upper joint and my guess would be that there is probably a missing pad on the key.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-10-31 16:18
You won't do any harm in giving the joints a good soak in a tub of hot soapy water (hot enough to keep your hands submerged in for long periods without experiencing any discomfort) once all the keys are removed, but watch out for the springs so you don't bend them too sharply or get stabbed by them.
Use a wide paint brush with the bristles cut reasonably short (around 1") to scrub the outsides of the joints with as this won't scratch the plastic and for the bore, use a bore mop for this. You should be able to unscrew the speaker tube and this will allow better access to the top joint bore.
Clean all the toneholes with cotton buds (Q-tips) to remove all the crud as well as paying attention to the sockets and tenon shoulders as crud will accumulate there too. If the tenon corks do come off (which they probably will as they often do on Bundys), don't worry too much as they can be replaced.
The throat A key on these clarinets isn't the most durable key and does get bent easily, but it is also relatively easy to bend it back again - insert a pad slick or similar smooth flat steel (smooth the end off to be sure it doesn't scratch the body) object under the throat A touchpiece where the cork is and gently lever it back up bit by bit until it opens to the full venting again. If the key cork comes off, then that can easily be replaced as well. Once you've bent the touchpiece back up, check the pad still seats and adjust it if necessary so it seats properly.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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