8 Tips For Better Care of Wooden Instruments

8 Tip For Better Care of Wooden Instruments

During colder months, we have to be twice as vigilant when it comes to the care of our wooden instruments. We asked two of our repair technicians, Baptiste Le Guillou and Frédérick Hanny, who specialize in woodwind care to help us out by giving us a couple of tips to add to our maintenance routine!

1) Humidity Control

It's important that you try to regulate humidity as much as possible around your wooden instruments in the case and in the house. During changes of temperature and humidity, wooden instruments can easily crack so it's in your best interest that the humidity level stays as consistent as possible.

Do no leave your instrument too close to a space heater or in your car during winter. A good rule of thumb is not to leave your instrument in any spots you wouldn't be comfortable. You can invest in a humidifier for your case for about 10$ that can save you a lot of trouble!

2) Having the right maintenance accessories

It is absolutely necessary that you clean your instruments with a swab at the end of each practice session. A swab is a cloth with a string and a little weight specially designed to fit your instrument that you pass through the bore of your instrument (the hole in the middle) to remove all humidity and dust. It is important that you have a swab designed to fit your instrument, otherwise the cloth will get stuck and you can damage your instrument.

The quality of your swab will have a big impact on the health of your instrument. A quality swab like those made by BG France will adequately prevent the accumulation of humidity and dirt which will prevent problems in the overall mechanism of the instruments and pads.

Don't forget to grease your corks with cork grease as soon as they dry up. Clean the corks with a dry cloth before you put on new grease.

3) Finding the right case

If you think that keeping your very old case will save you a couple of bucks... think again! A quality case made for your instrument will minimize shocks to your instrument during travel, which will help you save on adjustments in the long run.

Looking for a case upgrade? We recommend these :

Oboe alone |  Oboe + English Horn | Bassoon

Bb Clarinet alone | Bb + A Clarinets | Bass Clarinet

4) Listen to your instrument

Does the mechanism suddenly start making a lot of noise? Can you easily reach the very low or very high range of your instrument like you used to? Is this normally easy music passage suddenly very difficult to play?

All these are signs that your instrument needs professional care. Do not wait until it gets worse!

5) Be patient

Take the time to warmup correctly during the colder months of the year. Your instrument will need time to adjust and it needs regularity and consistency. Playing randomly for 5 hours one day can easily lead to cracks in your instruments. An instrument played regularly for the same period of time every day will be in better health.

Cracks are repairable in a lot of cases, but it's always so sad when they can be prevented!

6) Oil your bore

Did you know you can oil your bore? We recommend that you do it around the beginning of November first and then once a month until March but before you do, read carefully the next paragraphs and get in touch with your tech.

To do so, lightly oil a swab with bore oil and pass it through the instrument like if you were cleaning it. The oil will be absorbed by the wood. Leave your instrument to rest for 6 hours after treating it, the wood will reject the surplus oil that you can clean with a clean swab.

You can keep this oily swab in a Ziploc bag for further care, but be careful to solely use it to oil the bore and not clean the instrument!

7) Store your instrument correctly

Always store your instrument in its case after a practice session. Keeping your instrument on its stand for too long will put pressure on the tenons and you will risk that your instrument will dry in one piece and get stuck that way.

A lot of our clients who do this then have to either call us or force the fragile mechanism. Better to simply store it once you are done playing and cleaning it.

8) Book an appointment with your technician once a year

The simplest way to save money on maintenance is simply to book annual appointments with your repair technician. Whether it's at our stores or elsewhere, an experienced technician will be able to prevent a lot of damage and give you advice on the care of your instrument.

It's better to be safe than sorry, and that applies to instrument maintenance as well! Unfortunately, a lot of people wait until the last minute or after serious damage has already been done before consulting us.

To take care of your instrument you need to love it like you love music - Frédérick Hanny

Other products recommended by Twigg Musique you should check out to level up your instrument maintenance game :

Hetman #16 Key Oil Light

Anti-condensing oil for recorders

SpitSponge by Keyleaves

Cleaning Paper for pads

Thank you to our technicians who helped write this article :

Frédérick Hanny | Frédérick Hanny is the shop leader at Twigg Musique Québec, and specializes in woodwind repair. A member of the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT), he holds many repair certifications: Straubinger, Yamaha and Buffet Crampon.

Baptiste Le Guillou | Certified Straubinger technician and specialist in parts manufacturing, Baptiste Le Guillou demonstrates great skill with double-reed instruments and repairs flutes and clarinets. He has followed two repair and manufacturing trainings in France, a certificate of professional aptitude (CAP) and a certificate of craftsmanship (MBA) at the Institut Technologique Européen des Métiers de la Musique (ITEMM) while working as a repairman at the Christophe Devillaire workshop in Lyon.Baptiste plays drums as well as being a trumpet player and a member of a Brazilian percussion group.

Michael Borkovic | Autodidact impassioned by saxophone repairs, Mike has been a repair technician for over 8 years. After completing a Bachelor degree in education at Wilfrid Laurien University, he is now a woodwind technician at Twigg Musique since 2019. Mike is always seeking new techniques and tools to help improve and facilitate repairs . His favourite aspect of his job is to customize instruments to the liking of their owners whether it’s modifying the mechanic to facilitate the playing or the esthetic by engraving beautiful custom patterns. He is also a skilled woodworker and he makes many wooden accessories for the saxophone in his spare time.