 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Molldoll87
Date: 2013-05-07 14:08
Attachment: image.jpg (1286k)
After 6 years of being locked away in a cabinet in the den, I have come across my selmar 1400 clarinet! Wanting to get back to a decent standard I opened the case to find my poor unused clarinet in total distress! See pic below: all silver plated keys have become oxidised with lack of use after being held in a "not ideal" location!
Ay ideas of how to restore my clarinet to its previous glory? Or is it a job for the skilled and total overhaul needed? Your help and thoughts would be grateful!
Thks!
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2013-05-07 14:44
You don't need a professional for this job. You can clean the bore and get the tarnish off all the keys in a couple of hours of easy work. The best way is to take all the keys off section by section (using the proper screwdriver). If you don't want to, you can still clean it up with a dab of oil on a rag. Be carefull not to get any oil on the pads. Assuming they still seal, you can do all this for free.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-05-07 15:26
Sometimes nickel plate reacts in this way which is a shame as you'd think the case is the best place to put your clarinet before putting it in storage.
Unfortunately the nickel plating is damaged and the base metal will have pitted, so it will be a costly thing to put right as it involves a lot of time and effort to file down, paper up, polish, replate and refit the keys which means the pads and corks will have to be replaced on the affected keys.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Taras12
Date: 2013-05-07 15:36
Before taking anything apart, get some type of manual which describes basic clarinet maintenance. Haynes just put out a new manual which you can get on Amazon. It's called, surprisingly enough, "Haynes Clarinet Manual. How to by, set up and maintain a Boehm system clarinet." It will describe using excellent pictures, how to do key cleaning. LOL
Tristan
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Author: Molldoll87
Date: 2013-05-07 17:44
Thanks for all the advice! Being an amateur myself I think I will go to a professional and get some quotes on refitting and repairing the keys and pads!
Here's hoping its not unrepairable!
Cheers!
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2013-05-08 14:33
Since it's your own personal clarinet and it matters to you to get it back into nice condition, I think you're smart to go to a pro, since you've never taken the keys off before. I'd be giving a different answer if this clarinet were a flea market junker you'd picked up in order to experiment with learning restoration work. Then I'd encourage you to have at it! -- since this looks like a straightforward cleanup job. But, do-it-yourself is risky the first few times. For an instrument you definitely want to keep and play yourself, it's cheaper and safer to have the work done by a pro in the first place than to have to give up and take the clarinet in with the work partially done and done wrong.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-05-08 21:50
If you decide to take the keys off yourself:
1. Sweep and vacuum the floor around where you will be sitting.
2. Get a magnetized screwdriver. If you don't have one, put a small supermagnet at the top of the shaft.
3. Put an old towel on the table to keep things stationary. A repair shop trick is to use a beach towel, pull about 2 feet of it over the edge of the table and tuck it in your waistband, leaving a pocket to catch anything you drop.
4. Plan where you will put the keys as you take them off. They should be in an "exploded view" in the same position as they are on the clarinet.
5. Screws and rods are not interchangeable. As you take keys off, wipe off the screws and rods and lightly screw them back into their pillars.
6. After you put each key back on, dip the very tip of a rat-tail file into key oil to get a small teardrop of oil. Touch it to the spot where the key and post intersect and let the oil be sucked in by capillary action.
7. If you drop a screw (and you will), find it by putting a flashlight on the floor and shining it horizontally.
8. A good way to pick up a screw from the floor is to put a sheer nylon stocking or piece of pantyhose over the end of a vacuum cleaner wand, using a heavy rubber band to keep it from being sucked in. The screw will be caught in the mesh.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-05-08 21:56
Some stainless steel alloys used for screws aren't magnetic, so be aware of that.
I found that out to my horror when I tipped up a drawer of three different types of stainless steel screws and my strongest rare earth magnets didn't even trouble them! It picked every other bit of ferrous off-cuts and iron filings, but not the screws. So it was a task to sweep them all up, separate them from dist and other bits of cork, felt and other stuff that hits the deck during a service, then go through to separate each screw type from one another and put them back in their allocated section in the drawer from which they made a hasty exit from.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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