Tech/maintenance brasso for polishing a saxophone

[rob1969]

hiya i decided to start cleaning sax yestarday with brasso wool wish i had never started its taken me 3 hours to clean bell dose look nice but gave up when i relized i would have to dismantel all key work did take low reg off ok
dose it mater if it gose dull and anyone use anything diffrent from brasso did use drimal but missis gave me mucky look when it was all up wordrobe well this dose happen :shocked: me🙂

 

[losaavedra]

Personally I would avoid Brasso, Duroglit, etc., because eventually it will start to wear the lacquer off, also it is very messy stuff to clean off completely, especially in the nooks and crannies (which saxes have rather a lot of!). The only place I've used Brasso is very carefully where there's been a small soldering (blackened) flux stain on a joint somewhere on my alto, which after cleaning back I followed up with a tiny dab of clear nail varnish to prevent it blackening again a bit later. Other than that I treat my alto to a thorough external clean-up now and again (but at most only once or twice a year) using just warm water, a bunch of Q-Tips for the awkward bits, and a roll of kitchen towels for the drying off.

Generally speaking I don't think any amount of cleaning (even if all the lacquer is removed in the process!) will effect the tone. There was a guy playing alto on the beach the other day without any hint of lacquer left on his horn at all ... it was a sort of matt brassy colour all over, not a hint of shine ... but he was a dam good player.

As a guitar player I've noticed that those instruments, carefully 'stressed' at time of manufacture (to look 'well played') are quite in vogue! Maybe the same applies to horns, I guess there are lots of people who feel uncomfortable being the only person with a shiny new one!!!

 

[Young Col]

Mike
You beat me to it, because I was going to say the same as your first sentence, almost word for word! In fact I think Brasso is quite aggressive and can take the lacquer off quickly. It can leave a white deposit in places like the engraving (where it's difficult to polish out) and might clog moving parts in due course too. So Rob, simple answer is avoid it, use a soft cloth, or warm water dried off completely and polished just occasionally.

My late father-in-law worked in the Royal Arsenal and bequeathed to us several brass items - a naval shell case as an umbrella stand, base of a 25pounder shell as a doorstop etc. Even though unlacquered, we never use Brasso as it would clog up all the knurled bits and embossing. We just soft polish as above. Also after many years, some of the plain areas are now getting their own patina (I got that word from Antiques Roadshow!), but sadly that doesn't mean they are worth anything.

Colin

 

[Taz]

No don't clean (IMO) My horn has never been cleaned with anything more than a dry cloth and a bit of elbow grease. I occasionally dust it down with a paint brush, the sort with long soft bristles, the sort artists use, not interior decorators use! I have cleaned the pads with lighter fluid and either paper or cotton buds. I also drop a tiny amount of engine oil on the rods and key mechanism, probably no more than twice a year. Whilst doing this I also check for any loose screws and play in the mechanism. I hope this helps ;}

 

[griff136]

Here's what I,as a repairer, would use:


lacquered instrument - pledge - spray it on a lint free cloth and wipe over the lacquer.

silver plated instruments - silver cloth

bare brass instrument -
if you dont want to ruin the patina - dust off with a paint brush .
if you want it nice and shiny - brasso - it is an abrasive so go easy.


with all the above - avoid at all costs getting anything on the pads, make sure you dont un hitch any springs.

 

[rob1969]

Here's what I,as a repairer, would use:


lacquered instrument - pledge - spray it on a lint free cloth and wipe over the lacquer.

silver plated instruments - silver cloth

bare brass instrument -
if you dont want to ruin the patina - dust off with a paint brush .
if you want it nice and shiny - brasso - it is an abrasive so go easy.


with all the above - avoid at all costs getting anything on the pads, make sure you dont un hitch any springs.

thanks for all the replys wount be using that again glad it was secondhand to start with could of wrecked it
thanks

 

[Pete Thomas]

with all the above - avoid at all costs getting anything on the pads, make sure you dont un hitch any springs.

Worse than unhitching the springs is getting a big gob of brasso on a spring and then subsequently injecting it half an inch into your thumb.

 

[losaavedra]

Yup, musicians take their life in their hands every day! I've lost count of the number of times I've impaled myself on a guitar top E string where its cut off on the winder ... blinkin' hurts! And amplifiers ... phew ... poking around in them (as I am inclined to do) gave me a 500V reminder of the folly of not turning the thing off first (valve amp). And just for the keyboard players I found this on the web:

"The average modern piano has over 230 strings under a combined tension of 15 to 20 tons. A concert grand piano may have a combined string tension of up to 30 tons. Pianos made in the eighteenth century were not as powerful and used low-tension wire made from an alloy different from the wire used today."

A lot of stored up energy in them things too then, enough to catapult a very large rock into the next town!

 

[rob1969]

Yup, musicians take their life in their hands every day! I've lost count of the number of times I've impaled myself on a guitar top E string where its cut off on the winder ... blinkin' hurts! And amplifiers ... phew ... poking around in them (as I am inclined to do) gave me a 500V reminder of the folly of not turning the thing off first (valve amp). And just for the keyboard players I found this on the web:

"The average modern piano has over 230 strings under a combined tension of 15 to 20 tons. A concert grand piano may have a combined string tension of up to 30 tons. Pianos made in the eighteenth century were not as powerful and used low-tension wire made from an alloy different from the wire used today."

A lot of stored up energy in them things too then, enough to catapult a very large rock into the next town!

guitar strings do sting a bit i remember when i first started to play allway bust my e string on my js1000 all ways trying to got that pitch on the boss gt6 the worst i have had is when i was praticing maroond. dave gilmour was plucking e string and it hit me in my right eye hurt like hell for days you now that pain you get when your welding without mask and you try and sleep at night you have no change

 

[Pee Dee]

you now that pain you get when your welding without mask and you try and sleep at night you have no change

Yep, it's called arc-eye, had it a few times when I was an engineer. Always seems to hit you at 3 in the morning🙁

Did you say David Gilmour? This could start a whole new thread. We all want to know, or at least, I do, what you were doing next to guitar god? Are you the lost member of Pink Floyd?

 

[thomsax]

A few drops of lemon oil (guitar!!!) on a clean cotton cloth. Lemon oil is natural and remove dust and fingerprints from the sax.

Thomas

 

[old git]

Bunch of woofters. What's wrong with an angle grinder?

 

[kevgermany]

Bunch of woofters. What's wrong with an angle grinder?

Get a groovy sax with your method, but it takes too long cleaning up the rough bits with wet and dry then brillo pads afterwards. Could play with gardening gloves on I suppose, but I get all the keys on my pinky table at the same time.

 

[Lodger]

Many years ago my late father-in-law was a butcher. He polished the brass weights for his scales every week, until he was told that they had lost too much weight to be corrected with the bit of lead in the base and he changed to electronic scales.

Brasso really is an abrasive, but not quite as harsh as an angle grinder.🙂