Posted by David on July 18, 2001 at 00:51:27:
In Reply to: Bad Cleaning Techniques, Or... posted by John Caves on July 15, 2001 at 21:07:24:
As both a repairman and a player, this sounds like hooey to me - unless... If you left the horn in the soap solution overnight, you would have had soap scum on the entire instrument which is hard to remove. Soap, whether Dawn or any other, is designed to remove oil. Some soaps are better than others, that's all.
The crud on the valves and at the bottom of the casings is just build-up of stuff you run through the horn. We find the same crud in the leadpipe if you don't clean it out on a regular basis.
The $110 is not too much to pay for a chemical cleaning at all. Why a repairman would complain about his cut of the $110 is a mystery (most repair people are on commission). Usually the reason we complain about an instrument is because the horn is brand "Y", we made a mistake on the estimate, or the customer is generally a pain in the rear. (Just remember that most of us will charge a customer more if he/she is a pain!)
Just my opinion. Hope it helps.