Cleaning brass Instruments
How many of you regularly clean your brass instrument, I mean actually strip down and wash it out? Not very many I am guessing. There are many reasons for this. Why would you bother if everything is working and looks reasonably clean on the outside.
Cleaning Calcium Deposits
Saliva builds up inside your instrument in the form of calcium deposits. That’s the green stuff you see when you pull a slide out and look inside. Soap and water cannot remove this. Over a period of time this coats the inside of your instrument and the result is a smaller bore size. This calcium deposit is very hard and if a small piece breaks off it can create valve problems. This deposit is also very corrosive and usually is the cause of stuck slides.
The beginning of the end of an instrument is when you start to get pitting on the lead pipe. Even though this looks like it is starting on the outside it is in fact coming from the inside of the lead pipe. The instrument is rotting from the inside out!
Music Services imports a specially designed solution for cleaning brass instruments. This solution cleans down this calcium build up without harming the finish of the instrument (lacquered or silver plated).
We recommend an annual cleaning of brass instruments to extend the life and remove these calcium build ups and make it perform to its full potential.
Our cleaning service offers the following:
- Strip and Clean (remove stuck slides if needed)
- ACCURATE valve alignment (improves tone & intonation)
- Valve slide alignment
- Water key cork replacement
- Valve repair if needed (for regular or intermittent valve problems)
- Valve guide and valve spring replacement as needed
- Dent work as needed
