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Cleaning and Care of Woodwind Instruments
The session guide for beginners
In this guide you'll find all the important information you need to clean and care for your woodwind instrument. If you have any questions beyond the guide, we're of course happy to help you personally, by phone or by e-mail at any time.
1. Regular cleaning after playing
Disassemble the instrument and clean with microfiber swabs specifically for the mouthpiece, body and bocal. Pull the appropriate swab several times through the body, bocals and mouthpiece to remove residual moisture and to ensure the longevity of the pads and the instrument as a whole.
Clean the body and the bocal, or the clarinet, with the respective swab.
For transverse flutes, the individual parts should be cleaned internally with a special cleaning cloth and the flute cleaning rod provided for this purpose.
Pull-through swabs, cloths and co.
Pull-through swabs are the right tool to extract moisture from the instrument and to clean it from the inside.
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2. Regular oiling of the mechanism
It is recommended to apply oil directly to the key post at the pivot about every six months.
Key oils
Key oils prevent corrosion and wear and ensure a functional instrument and smooth action.
3. Greasing the tenon corks
Apply cork grease to the tenons with your finger and rub it in.
Cork greases
Cork grease prevents the cork from drying out and becoming brittle, allowing trouble-free assembly.
4. Polishing silver-plated parts
Oxidised areas on silver-plated instruments and parts can be excellently polished with a silver polishing cloth. Attention: Polishing cloths remove a very thin layer — for everyday cleaning a microfiber cloth is therefore sufficient.
5. Pad care
First remove deposits from the pads with cleaning paper, then treat them with talc-coated powder paper to prevent keys from sticking and “smacking”. To do this, place the paper between the key and the tone hole and close the key several times — no increased force is required.
Basic equipment for woodwinds
Here you'll find further utensils for maintaining your woodwind instrument for quick access. For a larger selection, have a look at our categories Cleaning aids, Greases and oils as well as care products.
Further services
More advanced cleaning and maintenance tasks for woodwind instruments, such as oiling a wooden clarinet or readjusting mechanisms, should be carried out by specialists. We offer this service in our wind instrument workshop in Walldorf. We'll gladly accept your instrument for this service at our specialist department in Frankfurt as well. If you're unsure, it's best to just call the specialist department.