How To Clean Bass Clarinet

jbtsax

Please realize that in order to clean the body of the instrument inside and out it is necessary to remove all of the keys so that the pads are not damaged. I do this often when I overhaul saxes and do a Clean Oil and Adjust (COA). If you are not comfortable that you can put everything back where it goes, I would recommend taking it to a repair shop and having a professional do it.

My system for cleaning saxophone bodies which would also apply to plastic (not wooden) bass clarinets is to remove all the keys leaving the pivot screws in place and give each blue needle spring a coat of Renaissance Wax. Next I soak it in the bath tub or a large plastic container in warm water with a liberal amount of Dawn dishwashing detergent. After soaking for a while I use several bristle brushes of different sizes to clean the inside of the bore and the toneholes as well as the outside of the body inbetween the toneholes and the "nooks and crannies". After a good brushing the saxophone body is rinsed with clean water and then dried using compressed air so there are no water spots. If there is any green left on the tops of toneholes a soft cloth dipped in naptha (lighter fluid) usually does the job.

A lacquered sax is then given a polish using Lemon Pledge. I like to use cheap cotton assembly gloves and spray one glove to apply the wax and use the other dry glove to wipe and polish. The same method is used to clean and polish the keys. To clean the inside of the hinge tubes I like to use brass valve oil on a cotton pipe cleaner. The same oil on a cotton cloth does a good job of cleaning the old oil off the hinge rods. The keys are given key oil and pivot screw grease during assembly. My COA then includes doing a "play condition" as the sax is assembled. The entire service averages about $200 in my shop depending upon the condition of the instrument.

A silver plated sax is cleaned in the same manner. The body is then dipped in Empire Tarnish Remover, rinsed and dried. The final polishing which takes most of the time is done using Haggerty's Silver Polish spray and/or a silver polish cloth. The keys just get a polishing with the silver polish cloth. The COA including polish on a silver plated saxophone averages $ 250 to $300.