Care & Maintenance

Caring For & Maintaining Your Harrelson Trumpet

The Leadpipe and Tuning Slide are the most crucial parts of a trumpet and must be cleaned weekly with a Leadpipe swab or a cleaning snake. It is recommended to keep a small bottle of rubbing alcohol to spray into the Leadpipe and Tuning Slide to allow things to dissolve and loosen before swabbing. An professional ultrasonic cleaning or chemical dip is recommended once a year.

SILVERPLATE: Silverplated instruments should be wiped down with the provided polishing cloth after every use. Dampen cloth & wipe all fingerprints or watermarks. Polish horn with FLITZ or equivalent as needed.

GOLDPLATE: Goldplated instruments should be wiped down with the provided polishing cloth after every use. Dampen the cloth and wipe all fingerprints or watermarks. NEVER USE POLISH ON A GOLDPLATED HORN. Spray with alcohol if absolutely necessary. Gold is a non-reactive metal but will wear easily. A professional leather valve guide is recommended.

RAW BRASS: A tarnished Raw Brass surface requires no maintenance. Polishing Raw Brass is not recommended as it is tedious and will tarnish quickly. Clear lacquer is not available through Harrelson Trumpets but you could have your raw brass horn sprayed with laquer locally.

OTHER ELEMENTS: Instruments with WOOD, LEATHER, or OTHER METALS require special care and maintenance. Do not chemically clean any instruments with wood or leather. Please call for instructions on your specific instruments.

SATURN WATER KEYS: Saturn Water Keys were invented by Dennis Wedgwood of the UK. They are operated by pressing the circular Saturn Ring towards the center Planet. They do not require regular maintenance but you may have your instrument technician disassemble them and swab with alcohol for a good cleaning. Coat with tuning slide grease and then re-assemble. *** When unscrewing the Saturn cap take care not to lose the spring as it is under pressure. Water keys with metal rings may rattle or make noise. This can be eliminated by coating all parts with thick tuning slide grease.

TRIM: Harrelson Custom Trim parts do not incorporate finger treads. Unscrewing Top & Bottom Caps may be difficult without proper care and maintenance. Grease all threads with tuning slide grease after EVERY cleaning. If your caps become stuck you may loosen them by using 1/8" thick rubber strip and regular pliers. If storing your trumpet for more than 1 month loosen all top and bottom caps.

SLIDES: All slides are lapped & fit to be perfectly parallel for easy use. Some Harrelson Models are intentionally designed to have very few slide braces. Take great care to prevent bumping these slides, causing them to go out of parallel. If your slides suddenly become difficult to move- have your repair technician check for parallel. *** Repair technicians may find it easiest to reheat one or more of the slide joints to achieve parallel. Use recommended slide oil- or mix with a small amount of tuning slide grease if necessary.