How many people have had problems with silverplating?

vampav8trix · Post by **vampav8trix** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:53 pm

I have very acidic skin. My flute is tarnishing very quickly. I play it a lot. I am concerned about the silverplate. I wipe it down after I am finished playing it. I have started cleaning between the keys with a Q tip. (I don't recommend doing this unless you know what you are doing.)

How many people have had problems with silverplated instruments due to the oils from their skin?

nasxxx · Post by **nasxxx** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:01 pm

Not too sure if my skin is very acidic or not but the silver plating on my Pearl 505RE has come off in places, I do know some silver clothes are abrasive so the softer ones would be better suited.

vampav8trix · Post by **vampav8trix** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:45 pm

How long have you had your pearl?

etgohomeok · Post by **etgohomeok** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:17 pm

I find it gives it a cool used effect. Makes it look "broken in."

You think silver is bad, try gold.

pied_piper · Post by **pied_piper** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:25 pm

Do you leave your flute out very much? Prolonged exposure to air encourages tarnish. Keep it in its case when you are not playing.

Do you use 3M Anti-Tarnish Strips? I keep a couple of them in my case and find that it helps keep tarnish from forming as quickly.

vampav8trix · Post by **vampav8trix** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:30 pm

I try not to leave it out.

I use the M3 tarnish strips.

chaos0008 · Post by **chaos0008** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:32 pm

I use 3M Anti-Tarnish strips and had my flute cleaned up by my tech about 4 months ago. It looked completely brand new, but now the headjoint is almost completely tarnished and certain parts of the body are also tarnished. I clean my flute thoroughly after every use and don't leave it outside it's case when I'm not practicing.

Any ideas?

fluteguy18 · Post by **fluteguy18** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 9:53 pm

I replied to your PM.

And if it does help, in regards to the comment about leaving your flute out, I will agree to that. Leaving your flute out will make it tarnish faster. The tarnish I have on a couple of keys on my flute is very minimal, and I usually play for 7-9 hours a day [3-4 hours of practice, and 4-5 hours of rehearsals]..... so it is very easy to say that I have my flute out of it's case a LOT.

nasxxx · Post by **nasxxx** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:10 am

Had the Pearl just over a year now but bought it 2nd hand so don't know how old it is not on the box. Never had it serviced and still pays well even thou was dropped and the head joint near the cork has a very slight indentation. Use to clean with with a silver cloth but heard that those can be too abrasive can't rememebr the brand but only use that Pearl cloth which was supplied as its much softer. Have to admit breathing warm air from your mouth on to the flute then rubbing works wonders for stuburn bits.

starcycle · Post by **starcycle** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:35 pm

My flute really tarnished fast from leaving it out, especially the foot joint for some reason. As long as the sound isn't affected I don't mind too much (would rather not have the tarnish), but I don't like when the lip plate gets tarnished. That kind of bugs me. I don't want to rub it too hard though, because I don't want it to get bent, so I just leave it alone.

This guy also says not to worry about it -- that trying to clean tarnish can damage the flute, or at least throw it out of whack (down near the bottom):

http://www.larrykrantz.com/misconcp.htm

He says just let the tech clean it when they have the keys off for servicing. Makes sense to me.

az1983 · Post by **az1983** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:59 am

I've had issues with plating wear on Altus, only on my C# trill lever. When the flute is closed in the case, the velvet rubs with pressure on that key because of its height above the Bb lever. Not a huge issue, and I haven't had plating issues anywhere else on the flute(9 years old). Just a cosmetic annoyance