Regularly cleaning your pBone is very important to keep your instrument in full working order! Follow our 10 simple steps below!
Unlike other brass instruments, cleaning the pBone and pBone mini is a very simple and easy task. You don't need to use anything fancy - just some soapy water and a soft cloth. Let's get started!
- Carefully take apart your pBone. Remove the bell from the slide; then remove the tuning slide. Finally, remove the outer slide to reveal the inner slide. Lay all of these parts out on a flat surface ready to clean.
You will need: A large storage container, microfibre / regular cleaning cloths, an old towel and instrument cleaning equipment & solution.
2. Fill the container with warm water. You can either add an instrument cleaning solution or standard washing-up liquid to the water. (For trombones, typically 100ml does the job!)
3. Submerge all pBone parts into the warm water. Make sure all the tubing is submerged in water, and leave to soak for 1 hour.
4. Clean the parts. Once the pBone parts have soaked, you can use a mouthpiece brush to clean inside the main tuning slide and inner/outer slide sections. Then, move on to the bell section. Again, you can use your mouthpiece brush for this too.
5. Make sure to clean your mouthpiece! Whilst you're going to all the trouble, you might as well wash your pBone mouthpiece too!
6. Empty the container. Now that you have cleaned all parts of your instrument, take all parts out of the container and empty the dirty water. Re-fill with clean warm water. (You don't need to add any more cleaning solution at this point!)
7. Re-submerge the parts. Place your pBone into the new clean water and leave to soak (around 30 mins should do). You may want to check that any excess cleaning solution has been removed from your instrument.
8. Take the parts out of the water. Once soaked, take each pBone part out of the container and place it on an old towel.
9. Dry your instrument. With your microfibre cloth, carefully dry each part of your instrument. Aim to remove any excess water that may not have been absorbed by the towel.
10. Re-assemble and play! Once dry, carefully put your pBone back together. It is now clean and ready to use! Have fun!
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