Clean your Brass Instrument from home

This Instructable is mainley for young musicians who's parents don't want to have to drop off thier brass instrument to the shop every week to be cleaned. Truth be told you probably have all the supplies at home to clean it youself! This instructable is'nt just for young musicians though so definently use this little trick!

Step 1: Supplies

The first thing you must do is get all your supplies together: Your disgusting Instrument, your bathtub, your soap, cleaning kit, oils and lubricants, and your warm water (not too hot not too cold). Remember this can be done with any kind of BRASS instrument, please don't do this with a woodwind please! Be sure your soap dos'nt have any BLEACH in it!

Comments

[TN777]

You put valve oil in the bottom!! There are holes there especcially for this purpose!!

[hcloost]

just curious as to why the detergent must be without bleach?

does it matter if i don't have a valve casing brush? would a toothbrush and some persistence do? i also have a snake brush that i could use for the inside of the casings (on the main body, not the valves)

thanks!

[TN777]

I actually play the trumpet, and the bleach would probally damage the brass. You can get a full trumpet kit- in different instruments- at www.lunsfords.com. There is also a Lunsford's music store in Knoxville, TN, which is where I got my kit. NOTE: Kit does NOT contain spit rag. You will have to supply a rag for this purpose only. They need to be washed- I will post a instructable on how to clean them.

[curbowman]

Could this method be used to clean cymbals?

[21GeeOff21]

YEAH, brass for life. I might have to try this soon.

[2001warrior]

Brass for life, heck yeah!

[1spartan95]

Brass for life!!!!!!!!!

[Badgergirl]

What about french horns? They have strings on them, and my teacher said we probably shouldn't give them baths. Probably the same reason you take off the felt stuff...

[BeanGolem]

If the string is nylon, you should be fine, since it's really just plastic. If you have plant-fiber string you may not want to.

[BeanGolem]

A couple things I've found from cleaning my euphonium: 1) Put a towel down in the bottom of the bathtub so that you soften the surface a little. Accidental dings/scratches are no fun. 2) Don't leave the horn in the tub while you drain it. Often, the grime and oil from the inside of the horn will float to the top and creat a film on the surface of the water. As it drains slowly, the film can be deposited on your horn, making extra work for the rinse. I have a detachable sprayer on my shower so I just run that over the horn as I pull it out of the water. 3) I've found that brushing parts while they are submerged works best to wash away as much as possible. This is especially true for snaking out the actual instrument tubing. Also, it helps to let the horn soak for 45-60 minutes before you brush anything. 4) For silver instruments, make sure you don't polish the horn too often. Polishing takes off a thin layer of the silver and can eventually wear through, especially where you hold the horn. When you do polish it, make sure you use no-grit jewelers polish to avoid scratches. I've heard you can use lemon pledge on laquered instruments, but have never done so and cannot speak from experience.

[rjdjhey]

so I use warm soapy water?

[2001warrior]

 Yes. You don't want water that's too hot because it might damage the lacquer. Although you don't want cold water because it's the heat along with the soap that get rid of the odors, mold, or other that may be present in you horn. I use Joy when I clean my horn. I would recommend  that you choose a soap with a scent you wont mind smelling for a few days. I suppose you could use an odorless soap but personally I don't mind the smell of Lemons so I use Original Joy. be sure to pick a product without bleach though. This instructable is from a while back. I now also own a Silver plated Yamaha Xeno. When I put it back together I use the Yamaha Silver Treated polishing cloth. Be sure to dry your horn off first. If you have a lacquered instrument a basic polishing cloth works just fine, there's no point to getting a silver polishing cloth if you don't have a silver instrument. Oh, I also now use "Blue Juice"  Valve Oil and "Schilke Slide Grease with Lanolin", its the best slide grease i've ever used. The last time I greased my slides was about 5 months ago and they still slide like the day I applied the grease. I also find if you put a few drops of valve oil on the slides it works a little better. Hope this helps!

[rjdjhey]

yeah it helps quite a bit thank you very much

[gmjhowe]

bath tub - great use of

[Lithium Rain]

Talk like Yoda you really do!

[gmjhowe]

not understand, what you say i do

[Lithium Rain]

find that hard to believe do I

[Jr Hacking kid]

how about a tuba cuz i play the tuba

[2001warrior]

Well I suppose it would work but you would need a huge tub, If I were you I would check with someone who knows more about tubas before you try it!

[aliceownsj00]

oh I remember those days during junior and high school... except mine was a trombone and it would take me a while to clean it. If you're lazy you could put it in a jacuzzi tub and turn on the jets lol

[2001warrior]

good idea, except for the fact that my parents jacuzzi tub is big and GA is in a drought so I don't think the residents of GA would let me do that!

[Shifrin]

SUFFERING SUKATASH

[2001warrior]

WHAT?

[threecheersfornick]

Fantastic! I just came up the stairs from practicung my trumpet, and I've been procrastinating cleaning it for a short while, so this instructable came at the perfect time!

One question: how often am I supposed to clean it?

[2001warrior]

I clean mine every one or two weeks, but that was during marching season on Thursday before game night, on Fridays, so probably once a month!

[Aar000n3y]

I'm not sure how often to clean either... I did some research and people seem to disagree. Some say at least once every three months, others say you don't need to clean at all. I'm thinking of cleaning mine out once a year at the end of each school year as a compromise.

[2001warrior]

same as what i told threecheersfornick, it really depends on how much you play or how well you want your horn to look.

[threecheersfornick]

Hm. According to those rules, I clean mine way too often -- I try to clean mine out as soon as the sound starts getting worse.

[Labot2001]

Great job, Braden! I'll go ahead and give you a +1 =]

Maybe I should make one on cleaning saxophones? ;]

_{btw, nice use of air compressor!}

[pingeee]

Reminds me of my old school days. I remember we only washed/polished our instruments twice a year, now it sounds very dirty and disgusting for the amount of saliva you could have (I played euphonium)

[Noodle93]

I've never cleaned mine, it's probably disgusting. I can't get myself to put my trumpet in the bathtub after I did it to my relic (older than me, like three times my age, if not more) trumpet, after a man at a music shop told us to use something, we did, and it corroded some of the brass and practically make the metal as tough as hell. Sad, I should get the old one out sometime.

[GorillazMiko]

Nice! I might show this to my friends, they're in marching band and stuff like this, they would love this!
+1 rating.

[Aar000n3y]

Hey, a fellow trumpet player! Nice instructable though. Reminds me that I kind of need to clean mine... It hasn't been cleaned for a few years and it's getting a bit nasty...