Brown MPC!!!!! (was: cleaning white stuff from mouthpiece)
Jean Boudreau
ng and soaked my Selmer formely black rubber mpc in 50/50 vinegar for
about an hour and a half. The thing turned brown with the outline of the
lig in black! Aside from being kind of ugly... well let's just say its
now very ugly.
Any ideas???
Thanks,
Jean
Carlos
Phil Barone
--
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made brass and sterling silver mouthpieces and custom saxophone mouthpiece
work.
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Jean Boudreau <re...@altavistapleasedontspamme.net> wrote in message
news:379F61D9...@altavistapleasedontspamme.net...
re...@altavistapleasedontspamme.net
Carlos wrote:
>
> Did you use WHITE vinegar?
>
Yes, I was out of balsamic and wine seemed so pretentious...
Jean
Robert L. Carroll
> Help! I dillengently followed the advice from various kind souls on this
> ng and soaked my Selmer formely black rubber mpc in 50/50 vinegar for
> about an hour and a half. The thing turned brown with the outline of the
> lig in black! Aside from being kind of ugly... well let's just say its
> now very ugly.
>
> Any ideas???
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jean
I'm curious -- what model of Selmer mouthpiece do you have? (Is it an old
one?)
re...@altavistapleasedontspamme.net
>
> I'm curious -- what model of Selmer mouthpiece do you have? (Is it an old
> one?)
Not really, it's a C** I bought new about 11 years ago...
Dennis C. O'Connor
the surface by the clamping action, and turned black by the reaction with acetic
acid...The brown is also due to a reaction of one of the organic compounds of
the rubber with acetic acid... Both are probably permanent, unless you start
sanding - not recommended as noted by PB... You could try leaving it out in the
sunshine for several days and see if the UV will bleach the brown surface...
Alternatively, a bleach solution (10% bleach by volume) may lighten it...
Or, you could start a whole new fad...
Denny
Robert L. Carroll
> >
> > I'm curious -- what model of Selmer mouthpiece do you have? (Is it an old
> > one?)
>
> Not really, it's a C** I bought new about 11 years ago...
Reason that I asked: I've heard that some old mouthpieces will turn color, but
new ones don't. AFAIK, the Selmer mouthpiece before the S-80 model was the
Soloist (I will be swiftly corrected by someone if this is wrong). I don't know
what came before the Soloist.
I've soaked my S-90 many times in Polident, and once in vinegar, without turning
it turning color. The black has become less shiny, and the gold lettering is
gone. I think I've soaked my Soloist also without color change.
Trevor Barnes
vinegar). Remember these subscribers are musicians not rocket scientists.
Jean Boudreau wrote in message
<379F61D9...@altavistapleasedontspamme.net>...
Stephen Howard
<re...@altavistapleasedontspamme.net> wrote:
>Help! I dillengently followed the advice from various kind souls on this
>ng and soaked my Selmer formely black rubber mpc in 50/50 vinegar for
>about an hour and a half. The thing turned brown with the outline of the
>lig in black! Aside from being kind of ugly... well let's just say its
>now very ugly.
>
>Any ideas???
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jean
Gosh, I miss the posts for a few days, and look what happens -
disaster!
OK then, now you know why you shouldn't soak ebonite - or heat it up,
or leave it in the sun ( it'll go green ).
Sods law comes into play and you'll find that some ebonites are more
stable than others - plus it depends on what sort of exposure the
stuff has had over the years ( hence the slightly blacker area beneath
the ligature ).
As for the now rather yukky brown finish you have, well, unless you
remove it mechanically ( polishing etc. ) you're stuck with it.
A competent repairer will be be able to polish it back to a reasonable
shade of black without damaging the lay and the rails, but I've found
that once ebonite has been 'browned off' it seldom stays black even
after a polish.
Personally I wouldn't bother - if it works, play it.
Regards,
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
Emails to: shwoodwind(who is at)bigfoot(dot)com
Mark Bushaw
The Soloist was one of several mouthpieces Selmer made. AFAIK the other
models just went by their facing code (C* etc) and had a horseshoe shaped
chamber. I guess it would make sense to call these MK VI models as they
were the piece usually thrown in by the dealer. The Soloist was an upgrade
mouthpiece and was marked Soloist, although both models had a ring of
interlocked S's around the shank. Prior to the MK VI pieces (BA pieces?),
Selmer used a thin ring of silver colored metal around the shank, and the
chamber was very excavated. Selmer also put out several glass pieces. I'm
using a glass one that is slightly excavated, kinda between the BA and MK VI
pieces. It doesn't turn brown or green the way my other vintage ones seem
to do.
Ma...@AmazonComputers.com
AKA MBu...@aol.com
Robert L. Carroll <car...@seas.gwu.edu> wrote in message
news:37A0A4EB...@seas.gwu.edu...
Dee D. Hays
sufficient to get the white crud loosened so you can clean it out of the
mouthpiece. The white crud is generally calcium deposits. The choices for
getting this stuff out of a mouthpiece are pretty limited. Plain soap and
water won't do it. You could try coffee pot cleaner but that's probably
harsher than the vinegar. Scouring it won't get all of it and the
probability of damaging the mouthpiece is very high.
I've soaked all kinds of old mouthpiecs that I've picked up and never had
one turn brown yet. But then again, I never put them in that long either.
I have noticed that disinfectants like alcohol will bring out a greenish
tinge but that's better than sticking them in your mouth without
disinfecting them since you often don't know their history.
Dee Hays
Canton, SD
Robert L. Carroll wrote in message <37A06EAA...@seas.gwu.edu>...
>Jean Boudreau wrote:
>
>> Help! I dillengently followed the advice from various kind souls on this
>> ng and soaked my Selmer formely black rubber mpc in 50/50 vinegar for
>> about an hour and a half. The thing turned brown with the outline of the
>> lig in black! Aside from being kind of ugly... well let's just say its
>> now very ugly.
>>
>> Any ideas???
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Jean
>
Jens Haug
> > I'm curious -- what model of Selmer mouthpiece do you have? (Is it an old
> > one?)
>
> Not really, it's a C** I bought new about 11 years ago...
I hat a similar problem with my C* after I had put it in hydrogen
peroxide. It turned out in a color between brown, green and dark grey.
(Before, it was just grey from the years of use.)
I cleaned it with toothpaste, although it is abrasive. I don't think
I removed more than just 1痠 or so.
Jens
Jens Haug
> The black is metallic fines (powder) from the metal in the ligature ground into
> the surface by the clamping action, and turned black by the reaction with acetic
> acid...The brown is also due to a reaction of one of the organic compounds of
> the rubber with acetic acid... Both are probably permanent, unless you start
> sanding - not recommended as noted by PB... You could try leaving it out in the
> sunshine for several days and see if the UV will bleach the brown surface...
> Alternatively, a bleach solution (10% bleach by volume) may lighten it...
> Or, you could start a whole new fad...
I wouldn't recommend exposing a rubber mpc to UV. Plastics are in general
degraded by UV, so the surface could be damaged. I guess what turned
out brown is indeed organic compound of the rubber that had been damaged
by sunlight so it could be attacked by the acid. This shouldn't happen
to new rubber.
Anyway, if you don't want to leave it on the mpc, I think you have to
remove it mechanically - and risk to remove too much if you don't work
carefully. As I mentioned in another post: Toothpaste worked fine for me.
Jens
Jens Haug
> You must take the advice given on this news group with a pinch of salt (or
> vinegar). Remember these subscribers are musicians not rocket scientists.
Ehm, I'm indeed an engineer, not a pro musician.
I just try my best not to torture my audience too much. ;-)
Jens
Riff 251
or leave it in the sun ( it'll go green ).>>
Green is my favorite color. Maybe I'll try this. ;-)
Riff
David Burckhardt
My sop mp, a Link 7* also turned to a green-brown hue over the last
months, and I don't know exacly how it happened. But as I play quite
often at open air gigs, I assume it is the sun (it is also still black
under the lig).
I'm thinking of opening a new business: buy rubber mps, let them turn
green-brown on my balcony, and sell them as "Swiss Army Mouthpieces" to
you guys who love our "Swiss Army" label (knives, watches, underwear,
etc...).
I just have to figure out how I can have them with spots of different
colors, like a real "camouflage" instead of plain green-brown.
Keep in touch !
db
Wayne Richards
mouthpieces and knows what he/she is doing. They use a paste like red
colored compound (forgot the name) and polish out the oxidation with a
very slow bench wheel using a soft cloth tool bit. The worst enemy for
changing the playing characteristics of the mpc is the heat generated by
the buffing. The mouthpice will look like new. If you want to use that
bottle of vinager try soaking an old reed in 1 part vinager / 10 parts
water. It will clean out the clogged pores and bring a little life back
to the reed. It will also make it play a little stiffer. I learned
this from Marcel Josse from the Marcel Mule quartet who used the same
reed for 10 years.
Wayne
LeliaLoban
>
>Riff
Some of my old rubber mpcs are oxydized greenish. They don't play greenish or
anything, so I don't try to do anything about it. They're old. They look old.
Okay by me.
Lelia
Please delete NOSPAM from my address to reply by e-mail.
john smith
lenses.
opticions sell tablets that remove protein and calcuim desposits from
contact lenses.
JJ
Alasdair, Cambridge, UK
rubber mouthpiece) in contact lens protien-denaturizing solution, in case I
came back to find it all made of short-chain organic molecules (eg. a
rubbery mouthpiece). However, I'm not a chemist and it's not my ugly brown
mouthpiece.
john smith <p.h@v.n> wrote in article
<7o7jba$n0u$2...@nclient11-gui.server.virgin.net>...
Jens Haug
> I'd be wary of putting anything made of long-chain organic molecules (eg. a
> rubber mouthpiece) in contact lens protien-denaturizing solution, in case I
> came back to find it all made of short-chain organic molecules (eg. a
> rubbery mouthpiece). However, I'm not a chemist and it's not my ugly brown
> mouthpiece.
Aren't contact lenses made of long-chain organic molecules as well?
I guess (and I mean it's just a guess), these solutions know the difference
between proteins and other organic molecules better than we do.
So try it out, tell us the result, but don't blame us! ;-)
Jens