Accessories Hodge swab for baritone

BigMartin

Well-Known Member
Has anyone in the UK been able to buy a Hodge swab (sausage of foam wrapped in silk) for a baritone sax pigtail? I've ordered one from Dawkes but it's been nearly a month now. I phoned them up this morning and the bloke I spoke to was rather vague and had no idea what the supply problem might be. They haven't charged me, but Im getting a bit impatient and my sax is probably getting a bit slimy.

The Woodwind and Brass website mentions them but there's no "add to cart" button. And the ones on eBay all seem to be from the US.

So:

1) If you've got one,
a) Are they any good
b) Where did you get it?

2) Failing the above, any suggestions for how to make one?
 
Got mine last year from Woodwind etc in Cowplain and it came very quickly.

First few times I used it out came lots of disgusting stuff. Not so bad now but glad to have it. It doesn't go into the pigtail very easily but I suppose that's a sign it is tight against the bore walls.

Rhys
 
I was talking to Stuart and Phil at Howarths about these swabs only last week.

Mine is about a year old and is starting to wear out and I want to get a replacement. My experience of them is the same as Rhys' - they're very good. In fact, they're the only reasonable way to clean out the top of a bari without resorting to calisthenics!

Hodge didn't seem to have these swabs on their website when the Howarths chaps looked it up. Might be sinister...

Oh - I think I got mine from Dawkes back then.

Bill
 
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The one I tried at Frankfurt last year I manged to break, the octave pip ripped a hole in it, so I'm not overly impressed. I did see what looked like a great Bari swab this year, made by Hollywoodwinds.

bariswab.jpg
 
This is what I do.

Find a flat M12 or so sized nut. Tie a long piece of string to it. Wrap the nut in clingfilm.
To the other end of the string tie a piece of cloth. White is good, as it lets you see just how disgusting the muck inside a sax is.
Tie another long piece of string to the other end of the piece of cloth.
Drink a bottle of champagne. Keep the cork. Sober up.
Wedge open the high D key with a champagne cork. You might need to trim it to size.
Drop the nut and string into the pigtail.
Rotate entire bari sax through 360 degrees (this is why you neeed to sober up first).
With a bit of look the nut will slip out of the D key. If not, hook the string out with a bit of wire.
You can now sort of floss the cloth back and forth round the pigtail using each piece of string.

Jon
 
For the pigtail I use a brass slide & tube brush (jupiter). I've also done a swab on my own: A long feder that I covered with a plastic tube. On the top an ordinary chamois swab and on the feder strips of chamois. It's c 2 meter long so it goes up to c2. I insert it from the bell.

Thomas
 
For the pigtail I use a brass slide & tube brush (jupiter). I've also done a swab on my own: A long feder that I covered with a plastic tube. On the top an ordinary chamois swab and on the feder strips of chamois. It's c 2 meter long so it goes up to c2. I insert it from the bell.

Thomas
Sounds interesting, but what's a feder? I know it's German for feather, but I can't think why you'd want one of those.
 
Just thinking along the lines of Thom's suggestion, aquarium suppliers sell brushes on one of his long 'Feder' that would be easy to modify. Something like this(sorry it's in German):

http://www.zooroyal.de/aquaristik-shop/aquarium-filter-pumpen/zubehoer/eheim-universal-reinigungsbuersten-set.html
 
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I got mine from W&B. They work but can be a bit fiddly on some bari`s. They also wear, so I got the lovely wife to stitch an extra piece of material onto the ends...get a piece of silklike material, a ribbon about an inch wide plus is good. cut it to about 3 or 4 inches in length, sew up the sides leaving the end open; turn it inside out (like a condom for the swab!), slide it onto the end and stitch it in place. Voila......or should that be in the string section!
 
For the record, my hodge swab arrived from Dawkes this morning. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Rushing around trying to get ready to go on holiday.
 

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