Tarnished Nickle

[letshearit4blue]

OK, anyone know of a good way to polish nickle? I have a clarinet that I have had for 7 years now, and frankly the keys are getting pretty dull, which for some reason takes some of the fun out of playing it.
Now, I've tried the so-called "polishing cloths" which SAY they are for use with keys, but they don't do anything except *sometimes* take off the current fingerprints.
I'm worried that if I use a non-musical commercial product it could ruin the bore/cork/wood if I got it on it.
Any suggestions? Know of any "home-made" recipes I might try?
Can nickle even actually be truly polished?
Thanks in advance.

[Spee-Dee]

OK, anyone know of a good way to polish nickle? I have a clarinet that I have had for 7 years now, and frankly the keys are getting pretty dull, which for some reason takes some of the fun out of playing it.
Now, I've tried the so-called "polishing cloths" which SAY they are for use with keys, but they don't do anything except *sometimes* take off the current fingerprints.
I'm worried that if I use a non-musical commercial product it could ruin the bore/cork/wood if I got it on it.
Any suggestions? Know of any "home-made" recipes I might try?
Can nickle even actually be truly polished?
Thanks in advance.

I'm trying to think back to band days and what they said in the woodwind seminar. I'm a oboist, and my oboe has silver plated keys, rather than nickel so what I do won't be the same for you. I used an extremely diluted silver tarnish remover. (DON'T DO THAT THOUGH! IT WILL RUIN YOUR KEYS.)

Did you ask at the music store? (Make sure it's a clarinetist you ask. I let a drummer fix my oboe once and he made it worse. Do NOT trust anyone but a clarinetist for advice.) Sometimes they have special cleaners designed for nickle plated keys. You could also take it in to get professionally cleaned. It'll cost you an arm and a leg though, unless they can do it on a clarinet without removing every single key. Mine was $275 to have done.

[letshearit4blue]

I wanted to get a B-flat R-13 clarinet, simply a gorgeous and wonderful tone, plus silver-plated keys. Beautiful. However, a fancy price too.

Yeah, I asked the music store. The guy there is a FANTASTIC repairman. One of the best in the country. He gets calls as far away as Costa Rica to go do repairs, so I trust him. Plus he plays clarinet too.
He was the one who suggested the cloth. I've got like a $60/year insurance policy on my instrument which covers pretty much everything, and when I send it in for routine repairs he always "buffs the keys" for me. And then it looks nice, but then a couple weeks later its back to dull, even with the daily use of the cloth.
Eh, I don't want them to take the keys off... I've found when you start taking things off they come off more easily in the future. Now I've had to have half the pads replaced, and some of the minor keys actually GLUED on multiple times.
I think I'll need to focus on more prevention from now on... My ol' girl is just giving way to age and elementary-school care...

How did your oboe look after its expensive cleaning?

[Spee-Dee]

I wanted to get a B-flat R-13 clarinet, simply a gorgeous and wonderful tone, plus silver-plated keys. Beautiful. However, a fancy price too.

Yeah, I asked the music store. The guy there is a FANTASTIC repairman. One of the best in the country. He gets calls as far away as Costa Rica to go do repairs, so I trust him. Plus he plays clarinet too.
He was the one who suggested the cloth. I've got like a $60/year insurance policy on my instrument which covers pretty much everything, and when I send it in for routine repairs he always "buffs the keys" for me. And then it looks nice, but then a couple weeks later its back to dull, even with the daily use of the cloth.
Eh, I don't want them to take the keys off... I've found when you start taking things off they come off more easily in the future. Now I've had to have half the pads replaced, and some of the minor keys actually GLUED on multiple times.
I think I'll need to focus on more prevention from now on... My ol' girl is just giving way to age and elementary-school care...

How did your oboe look after its expensive cleaning?

Very shiney. I only get my oboe thoroughly cleaned once every two years. Mine was a steal at $1000 used. My mom found it in Weyburn. It's over 50 years old and there's a minor crack in the B flat hole on the bell of it, but it doesn't really affect it that much. It also needs a new case, as it's still in it's original and it's starting to wear out. Unfortunetly I haaven't had a chance to play it since I graduated in 2003. I've just been too busy with work and school. I'm contemplating teaching oboe lessons to pick up some extra money, but there's not too many young oboists here because too many band directors discourage people from playing them. I still fail to see how the oboe is "one of the hardest instruments in the world to play." I had no problem picking it up. My first year playing it I can in first place at the Music Festival beating out kids who had been playing for 3 years.

[letshearit4blue]

I still fail to see how the oboe is "one of the hardest instruments in the world to play." I had no problem picking it up. My first year playing it I can in first place at the Music Festival beating out kids who had been playing for 3 years.

I think you have your answer there!
I don't know what oboes are generally priced at, but if its anything close to what a bass clarinet is then that IS a steal.

At my school, they allow two oboeists per band. You start by playing clarinet at 4th grade, then you can try a couple different types of clarinet at the end of 5th, and generally the oboe is picked up around 6th grade.

I took up bass clarinet for a semester in 5th, and they had a policy where after you took it once you had to let someone else have a turn, but my band director said I was REALLY good on it and should continue it (well, that's a director though...) so I went to pick it up in 6th grade permanently and my new band teacher kept coming up with excuses not to let me play bass. Like saying they had enough players, or they ran out of instruments. Finally at the conclusion of 8th grade he told me "the truth" and said I was really good on clarinet and it would be wasted on bass. I still tried to pick it up again in 9th, I love the sound, but my new new director still didn't want me to.

So I've been 1st clarinet 1st seat since I can remember. I never thought of oboe as a choice for me, I just didn't care for the tone (no offense). But it can be really frustrating when a teacher won't let you play the instrument you want. ESPECIALLY when that teacher announces that they need players on that instrument and no one but you is interested and they won't take you.
However, I do get to play bass in ensembles, so that's cool.

The three most discouraged instruments at my school are piccalo, Saxophone, and alto clarinet.

[Spee-Dee]

I don't know what oboes are generally priced at, but if its anything close to what a bass clarinet is then that IS a steal.

The problem in Saskatchewan is trying to locate a really good oboe that's used. It's bad enough I have to import my cane from the US in order to make my reeds. The guy who I take my oboe to when it needs servicing is actually the original owner of it. He says he bought it new for around $3000 50 years ago. I don't know what that is today.

At my school, they allow two oboeists per band. You start by playing clarinet at 4th grade, then you can try a couple different types of clarinet at the end of 5th, and generally the oboe is picked up around 6th grade.

Our school band program here doesn't begin until grade 6. I was permitted to join grade 8 band when I was in grade 5 because I had been playing trumpet in a marching band for two years prior. (I got kicked out because they thought they were losing competitions because I was too short to keep up. I could keep up; I just took an extra step every time.)

When I was in grade 6 I wanted to play percussion, but the band director wouldn't let me because he said it would be too easy for me. The other instrument I wanted to play was tenor sax, but I was told I couldn't play it because my left thumb is double-jointed. I proved them wrong when I self-taught myself in grade 9.

I don't understand your school's steps to becoming an oboist. Clarinets and oboes are two completely different instruments. The oboe is an octave instrument (The inside goes from narrow to wider and uses octave keys) from the double reed family, whereas the clarinet is a bore instrument (the inside is all one width and uses register keys) belonging to the single read family. Just because they look similar doesn't mean they are. Grrr!

I took up bass clarinet for a semester in 5th, and they had a policy where after you took it once you had to let someone else have a turn,

That's a stupid policy.

So I've been 1st clarinet 1st seat since I can remember. But it can be really frustrating when a teacher won't let you play the instrument you want. ESPECIALLY when that teacher announces that they need players on that instrument and no one but you is interested and they won't take you.
However, I do get to play bass in ensembles, so that's cool.

I was unofficially declared the "first chair" oboist in high school. There was only one other oboist besides me. She stole my solo though. Just because you go to Australia for 4 months and I take the solo, doesn't mean you can come back and steal it away from me for "fairness reasons."

The three most discouraged instruments at my school are piccalo, Saxophone, and alto clarinet.

Piccalo is not really a principal instrument to begin with. It's one of those instruments for floutists who need more of a challenge. Could you imagine a whole section of piccalos? The thought scares me.

I never thought of oboe as a choice for me, I just didn't care for the tone (no offense).

The sound is the best part! I can make my oboe sound like a garbage truck backing up, a dying duck, squeezing a cat's ***. You name it!

I really want to learn to play the bagpipes, but something tells me my neighbours would start calling the police everytime I practiced due to loud noises. Instead I opted to start highland dancing this year. I still get the bagpipey goodness, only there's no bagpipes to be thrown out of frustration. Instead they get to listen to my bagpipe techno/bagpipe punk music while I practice.

[letshearit4blue]

(I got kicked out because they thought they were losing competitions because I was too short to keep up. I could keep up; I just took an extra step every time.)

Damn that's stupid...

I proved them wrong when I self-taught myself in grade 9.

I love self-teaching. I started teaching myself how to play guitar this August. Within a week I could play Eleanor Rigby w/ chords and up to speed, and now I can play most beetle songs and I'm moving on to stuff like Britney Spears or Santana and other fun stuff. Anything I can't figure out by ear or with the radio I just take a piano book I have already, and if it isn't there, I have a truly disgusting amount of sheet music and books for clarinet that I can use... I don't think there's a song I've ever wanted to play that I haven't had the music for.

I don't understand your school's steps to becoming an oboist. Clarinets and oboes are two completely different instruments.

I agree that it's stupid too, but I guess that they're trying to keep everything simpler when they have a bunch of squaky new players running around the band room. Or maybe because the oboe is so expensive they just really want to wait until kids have more responsibility, and know how a reed works and how to care for an instrument and how to read music.

I was unofficially declared the "first chair" oboist in high school. There was only one other oboist besides me. She stole my solo though. Just because you go to Australia for 4 months and I take the solo, doesn't mean you can come back and steal it away from me for "fairness reasons."

Ugh, I hate "fairness reasons". Our band played music from Lord of the Rings in a concert, and I got like this awesome huge solo for it. And I did well. Then we went to a band competition and got selected out of all the bands in New York State to play at an important convention and one of our selections was LOTR.
And my director had ALL the clarinets play my solo because he didn't want me "in the spotlight" (WTF?) and it sounded bad because the section wasn't written to be played by 30 clarinets, a good number of them substandard!

Piccalo is not really a principal instrument to begin with. It's one of those instruments for floutists who need more of a challenge. Could you imagine a whole section of piccalos? The thought scares me.

At musical auditions for a county band, in the warm-up room there was this piccalo playing RIGHT in my ear. High-pitched noises REALLY bother me. After a couple of minutes I was ready to hit her.
Piccalo isn't offered at the beginning. You can take it up at the end of 9th grade if you've been playing flute since 4th. There's only one piccalo per band, and (thank god) she sits on the opposite end of the band than me.

I can make my oboe sound like squeezing a cat's ***.

Wow, lol I'd really like to hear you play!

I really want to learn to play the bagpipes, but something tells me my neighbours would start calling the police everytime I practiced due to loud noises.

My brother took tuba, and would play it at like 10 at night when I was trying to sleep, and even though he was in the basement and I on the second floor, I could still feel the vibrations through the floorboards.
And THEN he wanted to take up banjo...
bagpipes, huh? I don't think I'd ever do that...

On a side note, my dad handed me something today that used to be my brother's. Brass/Copper/Bronze polish from his tuba. I said "Dad, nickle is NOT brass or copper or bronze!" and he said "Well, its all metal! Should work fine."
Mmmmmm an engineering degree at work

[CTR man]

Gee!!! This thread brings back a lot of memories. Started out in 5th grade playing Alto Saxophone, self taught myself to play bassoon in 6th. If I'm not mistaken, bassoon has the same fingerings as oboe just in a lower register. I like the ones made out of real wood instead of the black plastic type stuff that they make clarinets out of. Good for Clarinets, Not so good for Bassoons, IMO wood is better. Although Bassoon is not a good marching instrument. Switched to Baritone Saxophone in 7th, same fingerings as the alto just lower register. Self taught myself Tuba in 8th, couldn't handle the vibrations that the various reed instruments made in my mouth. High School band director saw me and begged me to play Tuba for him all 4 years. Self taught myself the slide trombone with F and A rotary key attachments (bass) for j*** band pieces that didn't have a tuba part.

Dang Band instruments are expensive. Wanted to get a concert Tuba called a Mirafone which has rotary valves instead of piston valves. Excellent sound for a tuba, but at $3,000 to $5,000 it was just not feasible at the time.

Earned the nickname "Big L" in high school for playing tuba, not because of my size.

Bands usually have only one or two picollos for pieces like Stars and Stripes Forever, etc. I agree that they are pitched unusally high.

On a side note, my dad handed me something today that used to be my brother's. Brass/Copper/Bronze polish from his tuba. I said "Dad, nickle is NOT brass or copper or bronze!" and he said "Well, its all metal! Should work fine."
Mmmmmm an engineering degree at work

Try to find a polish specifically made for nickel as these other polishes won't work. I always thought that clarinet and other reed instruments had stainless keys. What brand is your instrument? Is it unusually old or just different than the standard Clarinet? Do not take the keys off, leave this to a professional in instrument repair. Keep the keys oiled and pads in good repair and you will have an instrument that will last for years.

[Spee-Dee]

If I'm not mistaken, bassoon has the same fingerings as oboe just in a lower register.

No, they don't have the same fingerings. They don't even have the same key set-up. I think (don't quote me on this) that the oboe might have the same fingering as an English Horn.

Yes, instruments are expensive. I can play 7 instruments and let me tell you, it really starts to add up.

[pkagel]

Probably the best polish in the world.

http://www.wenol.com/

Another favorite of mine.

http://www.flitz.com/