Other Uses For A Toothbrush

[Jody Kruskal]

I play my Jefferies G/D a lot, sometimes in dusty dance halls. I’ve had it tuned twice over the last 8 years, but the last time was awhile back. Tomorrow I have a recording session and I checked the tuning with my electronic tuner, and just as I suspected, many notes were off by as much as 5 cents. The off ones all seemed to be flat, and I thought, perhaps there is some gunk slowing the reeds down a bit.

 

I made note of the flattest 8 reeds, removed the shoes and got to work. First, I slid a stiff piece of paper under a reed and pushed it back to where it attaches to the shoe. I did this several times (each time left two little marks of rust and dirt on the paper) until the operation left no mark on the paper.

 

Then I got a vibrating toothbrush and brushed the reeds and shoes with toothpaste, being careful not to drop the reed down the bunghole.

 

After rinsing, I put them in an ultrasonic cleaner. This is a gadget that came with the house we bought, used for cleaning jewelry and dentures and stuff like that. I zapped them for three minutes per instructions.

 

When I dried the reeds and put them back in, the situation was much improved. Only one reed was still flat, and that one, not as much. The whole thing only took about half an hour. I don’t know which of these three operations was the most helpful, probably the paper alone would have done the job, but I am relieved to be able to go into the studio with a better sounding instrument.

 

Jody

[Frank Edgley]

Iv'e noticed this, as well. Several years back, I noticed a note on my concertina about 5 cents flat. When I took it out to tune it, I noticed it was a bit dull in colour. I wiped it with my finger and it came off. I think I also then cleaned under the tongue. When I put it all back together, I found it was no longer flat!

[d.elliott]

I think all ultrasonic cleaners use a fluid as a couplant, this is slightly oily and its residue will pick up dirt as you pump air through the reeds. You may have made your problems many times worse.

 

I would also be very carefull about being too aggressive in tooth brushing, (or any other mechanical cleaning) unless you know how to manage the process and any possible accidental outcomes.

 

Never get the reeds wet unless part of a thought out process. I used a de-rusting agent but then apply a boiling water rinse to clear the chemical and to flash off any residual moisture.

 

Dave

[Theo]

I'd be interested to hear from anoyone else with experience of using ultrasonic bath cleaners. They sem to me to offer some advantages for reed cleaning, particularly the ability to clean into small crevices without any mechanical action that could abrade surfaces.

 

From the little a know about them I have learned that it's important to choos a fluid appropriate to the articles being cleaned, and the kind of contamination being removed. Most seem to be water based fluids containing a detergent.

 

Dave, I don't think this would pose a problem of leaving an oily residue, but might leave the steel parts chemically clean and therefore easily prone to rust - I would be interested in more info about your de-rusting agent. What is it, how and when do you apply it?

[Baxter]

Hey, thanks for the tip! I cleaned my reeds, and now several that had been annoyingly flat for quite some time are well back into the tolerable zone. I didn't do anything fancy, though - just got after them with a dry toothbrush and a bit of paper. I have a Stagi, and the bushings on the buttons have been depositing rubber dust all over the place for years. Never occurred to me it might be affecting the pitch.

[d.elliott]

Theo,

 

I did a thread a couple of years ago on this site, it was one of those waterbased, made out chemically re-engineere orange smelling, very tree hugging (why do trees never hug back?) preparations. If I can find the bottle & details I will let you know.

 

As to U/S cleaning, I have considered this myself, and rejected it unless a full de-grease follows. I have very BAD experiences of the consequences of this process on pneumatic valve components (un-degreased). I have worked on U/S cleaning of bearing systems and pneumatics, spending many £k on plant which worked superbly for cleaning.

 

However my three abiding lessons were:

1. U/S does not clean off clean oil/ grease, U/S needs surface contamination for the low frequency sound pulse to hit and pass energy to, thus to scarify the metal surface.

2. If not degreased the pneumatic components furr up with fine dust particles

3. after degreasing, boil the components to that their heat on removal from the tank flashes off any moisture

 

You then have a very clean and vulnerable surface.

 

Watchmakers use small U/S cleaning baths, look about the same size as a deep fat fryer. But the couplant used is watch oil.

 

Dave

[Jody Kruskal]

Hi Dave,

 

Thanks for the warnings. I opened up my box to tuck the little reeds in for bed, they seem to be fine. I used a home model U/S just big enough for a pair of eyeglasses, brand name Cleenette made by Tatung. The fluid was water with a capful of the supplied cleaner, seemed like detergent with ammonia. As for the toothbrush and toothpaste, I figured that an abrasive mild enough for teeth would be fine on steel. The alternative would have been to take a file to them after all. If I removed a bit of metal that would raise the pitch too, and that was the point after all.

 

I did dry the metal thoroughly, which I should have mentioned in my first post. The hot water evaporating trick seems good, but in my case, after I cleaned ‘em, I played ‘em and I bet any moisture left, evaporated through use.

 

You then have a very clean and vulnerable surface.

 

Vulnerable to what, oxidation? Should I have applied a light coat of oil and then rubbed it off, like seasoning a frying pan?

 

By the way, those little reeds are pretty tough. When Collin Dipper voiced my box he grabbed them between thumb and finger and twisted and bent the poor little things until they cried for mercy. Never sounded so good. Of course, he knew what he was doing, and knew how to fix what he broke.

 

Jody

 

 

 

 

 

Dave

Edited January 23, 2006 by Jody Kruskal

[d.elliott]

Jody,

 

I don't know the cleaning system you mean, but it sounds like it would not leave too much of a residue.

 

As to 'vulnerable', it is very easy to damage small reads, remember that some of the CNETTERS play English 56k where the reeds can be half the size of your smallest reeds. A catch with a bristle brush, and you can kink a small reed through 90 degrees.

 

In my repair activity and as a bit of a self confessed experienced hand, I treat small reeds with a maximum of respect. When Colin was voicing your reeds he was carefully testing the 'give' in each reed as he took it through the point at which perminent set takes place.

 

Tales of handeling, brushing, and cleaning such as you describe does rather make my toes curl. I am truely glad it worked out for you, and I shall look up your cleaning system, but I am glad you did not file the reeds, abraiding with stiff paper is usually enough, meths (industrial alcohol), also is a pretty good cleaning agent, but keep it away from polished wood surfaces.

 

cheers

 

Dave

Edited January 23, 2006 by d.elliott

[red]

Would a good boiling clean a reed without affecting it? I know it sounds radical and I suggest it in my innocence/ignorance, but why not?

[Jody Kruskal]

Would a good boiling clean a reed without affecting it? I know it sounds radical and I suggest it in my innocence/ignorance, but why not?

 

Why not put 'em on the bar-b-q and roast the little buggers. No really, I think the stiff paper alone is so simple and works the best if you want something quick and effective.

 

Jody

[red]

Would a good boiling clean a reed without affecting it? I know it sounds radical and I suggest it in my innocence/ignorance, but why not?

 

Why not put 'em on the bar-b-q and roast the little buggers. No really, I think the stiff paper alone is so simple and works the best if you want something quick and effective.

 

Jody

 

Now its a funny thing you should mention the bar-b-q, but I've just experimented with dipping them in tomato ketchup overnight!!

 

It works suprisingly well and a little light boiling afterwards does no harm at all.

[Henk van Aalten]

Now its a funny thing you should mention the bar-b-q, but I've just experimented with dipping them in tomato ketchup overnight!!

 

It works suprisingly well and a little light boiling afterwards does no harm at all.

That looks like an interesting experiment. I assume that the ketchup contains some weak acid(s) in low concentration.

Can you describe exactly the effect(s) that you observed?

[red]

Now its a funny thing you should mention the bar-b-q, but I've just experimented with dipping them in tomato ketchup overnight!!

 

It works suprisingly well and a little light boiling afterwards does no harm at all.

That looks like an interesting experiment. I assume that the ketchup contains some weak acid(s) in low concentration.

Can you describe exactly the effect(s) that you observed?

 

On the ball, Henk. The ketchup, like many foodstuffs including a certain very well-known soft drink, contains phosphoric acid. The effect was to clean off all of the surface gunk but needing a little boiling water to clean off the ketchup. After which, the now-warmed reed soon evaporates off any water. An interesting side-effect was that the brass was left somewhat red. Not an effect of the tomatoes but the phosphoric acid etching away the zinc content from the alloy to leave the copper, but only to the depth of a molocule or two.

 

Those who keep up with the news will recall that there is now a phosphoric acid rich area in the english channel just perfect for reed dunking!

 

If you dont want to risk a reed, try a coin or other small metal object, seems to work as well with ferrous and non-ferrous metal.>

[JimLucas]

Would a good boiling clean a reed without affecting it?

Why not put 'em on the bar-b-q and roast the little buggers.

Now its a funny thing you should mention the bar-b-q, but I've just experimented with dipping them in tomato ketchup overnight!!

Hey wasn't there once a thread about... ah, yes here it is!

[CaryK]

" I figured that an abrasive mild enough for teeth would be fine on steel."

 

 

 

Actually the mineralogy of teeth make them harder with respect to ability to be abraded than is ordinary steel. So you might want to be careful with choice of toothpaste. If you are going to use toothpaste it would probably be safer to stay away from ones that promise to whiten based on their abrasive action.