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Clarinet Cleaning & Maintenance
It's important that you clean your clarinet thoroughly after you have played it and before storing it in its case.
This is because warm, moist air from your mouth condenses in the instrument, and this moisture can lead to problems with the clarinet's mechanisms.
Clarinet Pullthroughs
Using an absorbent clarinet pullthrough as well as other clarinet maintenance accessories will help keep your clarinet 'healthy' and help prevent common problems such as waterlogged and sticking keys. Removing this moisture also helps to prolong the life of the pads, which are crucial for your clarinet to continue working properly and sounding good.
The most effective way to clean the inside of your clarinet is to first dismantle all of the sections (there are 5 in total - the mouthpiece, barrel, top joint, middle joint and the bell). Do not pull the swab through the mouthpiece as this process can eventually alter the sound that it can produce.
Most pull throughs have a weight at the end of a piece of string or ribbon. Use this weight to guide the swab through each of the sections in turn. Repeat this process until each piece is dried properly. If you use a mop with a wire or wooden handle, gently push the rod up and down each section a few times, occasionally twirling the rod in order to sweep up any moisture that might have been missed. Once your clarinet has been cleaned and put back in its case, ensure that the mop or pull through is NOT stored in the same compartment as your clarinet. This can cause the moisture you have just removed to sit on top of the clarinet and be reabsorbed by the pads. If you have a wooden clarinet, this moisture may also seep into the wood, which may then lead to cracks developing in the bore.
Pull throughs can be made of a variety of different materials. The best and most absorbent materials include chamois, micro fibre, silk, cotton and wool. It is important to choose a mop or pull through that is sufficiently big enough to clean the circumference of the bore. On the other hand, if the pull through is too large, there is a risk of it becoming stuck in your instrument. Should this occur, do not attempt to cut or 'yank' it out yourself, but seek the help of our repair team, who will be able to remove it safely without causing damage to your instrument.
Clarinet Cleaning
We stock a wide variety of clarinet cleaning and clarinet maintenance accessories, such as clarinet swabs, clarinet polishing mittens and silver cloths.
Sticking pads has to be one of the most annoying problems a clarinet player faces. Luckily, Yamaha make a range of papers designed to keep your clarinet pads in top condition. Yamaha Cleaning Paper is designed to keep the pads free of foreign material, whilst Yamaha Powder Paper offers a solution to the problem of sticking pads. Silver Cloths and Polishing Mittens are both excellent at removing surface dirt and keeping Clarinet keywork from tarnishing.
Clarinet Maintenance
We sell a Clarinet Maintenance kit which contains the following clarinet maintenance items:
- Cork Grease
- Mouthpiece Brush
- Thumb Rest
- Reed Guard
- Keywork and tonehole brush
- Cotton pullthrough
