First off, I’m in the marching band in my high school. We had a contest on Saturday, and if you live in Indiana you know it was wet, cold and rainy on Satuday. If you also live in Indiana you might have known it was district for some of the d bands. anyway….It was absoulutely soaking wet though our warm ups,and the performance. My pads are practically ruined. On Saturday I wanted to protect the pads on my clarinet, so with my white gloves i wiped some of the water off, and my gloves were brown, I stopped rubbing it and forgot about it. After the performance I got one my bus and wiped down my clarinet with my fleece jacket and swab, that was all I had.I opened the case and let it dry that night too, I’m so confused on why it is brown. The other clarinets in my section, there is only one that is brown. Both of us clean our instruments daily, and way more often then the rest of our section.Only our’s are brown. I am confused…it looks like the black came off and there are water stains on mine.
for the person who answered the question first, it still plays ok, we did not have a choice if we could go inside, and everyone in my section has a wood clarinet and theres is ok escept that one.
Shawn is right. The clarinet may still play well, but think about this: what happens when you soak wood with a bunch of water and let it dry? It shrivels up, and looks weird. The same applies to a wooden clarinet.
No instructor should let students bring wooden clarinets outside in such weather. I remember that my high school band director would always warn the people with wooden instruments, before we left, that we should go grab our plastic ones. He went as far to give me a plastic one with an out-of-place right-handed B key and trying to move it in place by force; better than sending my wooden clarinet out there.
You should *not* be using a wooden clarinet in marching band; that is why people keep their plastic ones. I’ve had my wooden clarinet go through really low MN weather temperatures, but would I put it through rain? If it were a drizzle, *maybe*. If it’s a really heavy rain, I wouldn’t dare.
Your pads getting wet at all is bad news, and will be a costly repair (you’re looking at least $200 for a full pad replacement). What happens with the pads when they get wet is they shrivel up and don’t seal as well. You may not notice any consequences right now, but in time, your clarinet’s essentially going to deteriorate.
I would either get a replacement clarinet or send it to a really good repairman, but it’s going to cost you. Don’t use wooden clarinets in marching band…
