Giving your Trombone a Bath By Michelle Hoff

Cleaning Instructions Find time when you can work carefully without interruption around a bath tub or something comparable. You will need a trombone coil cleaner, brass mouthpiece brush, and a rag.

Prepare the bath Put a towel down in the bottom of the tub before adding any water. This will prevent your trombone from scratching up the tub. Fill tub 1/2 full with luke warm water. DO NOT use hot water as it will flake off the shiny laquer on your instrument. Add a few drops of dish soap such as Dawn, Ivory, etc.

Remove your slides Pull out your tuning slide , remove your inner slide from your outer slide and put the slides and the bell section in the tub to soak for a few minutes.

Cleaning the mouthpiece Use your mouthpiece brush to scrub out your mouthpiece. Rinse your mouthpiece well and set aside to dry. Clean out your mouthpiece once per week or sooner if you have been sick.

Cleaning the slides Use your coil cleaner to carefully scrub out the inner slide. You can push your coil cleaner all the way through the inner slide. Carefully scrub the outside of the slide with your coil cleaner. This will remove any slide oil residue.

Cleaning the Slides Scrub the inside of the outer slide. Do one side at a time as the coil cleaner is not long enough to go completely through this slide. Scrub out your tuning slide and make sure to remove all grease off the feet of the slide.

Rinse and Re-assemble Rinse all parts of your trombone well and set aside to dry. Re-grease the tuning slide and put it back in the bell section. Re-oil your slide and carefully put the inner slide back in the outer slide.

How often should a trombone get a bath? Give your trombone a bath once per month. It is a good idea to get help from a parent when putting the inner slide back in the outer slide. If the inner slide gets bent, it will not move very well.