Author: jhoyla
Date: 2011-10-09 16:41
It sounds like you are really, really hard on your instrument!
Bent keys? Octave keys out of alignment? Whew! That has never happened to me in 40 years of playing on many instruments. Quick tips:
1. MAKE SURE that you have greased the joint corks well. There should be only moderate resistance to assemble or disassemble the instrument. If you have to grip and twist hard, you have a problem! I keep a small tub of lip-salve in my case and I use it on the corks if they get at all stiff.
2. Get a teacher to show you WHERE and HOW to hold your instrument while assembling. You should only be applying torque (twisting force) to posts (the metal pieces screwed into the wood) and the thumb-rest. NEVER to moving parts.
3. Make sure you LIFT joint connections out of the way before twisting (e.g., press on the Bb pad before aligning the bottom joint).
However, all of the above should not be the cause of the instrument cracking.
If you live in a particularly cold, icy region you are more likely to suffer from cracking (apparently). Nevertheless, experience has shown that there are things you can do to make cracking less likely to happen.
1. ALWAYS warm the instrument to body temperature SLOWLY before you play. Use your hands (I have big, warm hands), use your sleeves, etc. Take 10 minutes over this if you have to - but get the outside of the instrument warm before you start playing. (look up "heat coefficient of expansion" - if the inside tries to expand and the outside is cold, the wood can crack due to the inner stresses this causes)
2. ALWAYS dry your instrument THOROUGHLY before putting it back in its case. And ALWAYS put it back in its case - even during a rehearsal break or an interval. (water expands and contracts much more than wood, and if ice should form - look out!)
3. NEVER play outside, or take a warm instrument out into the cold, or leave a warm instrument next to an air-conditioning vent etc. etc.
4. Add an extra layer of insulation to your case - a wooly cover, an extra bag etc. This makes changes in temperature happen much more slowly.
5. [controversial] - I would recommend against oiling your instrument. Oil the mechanism by all means - tiny drops of sewing-machine oil with all excess cleaned off before it reaches the wood - but don't bother oiling the bore. It makes no difference and may even cause harm.
If you already do all of the above, then yes - I expect you are just really unlucky :(
J.
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