Trumpet Cleaning question

My son just finished his first year of beginner band playing trumpet. His band director told him to clean his trumpet by taking it apart and submerging it in the tub with some soapy water. He was using a blessing B125.

After his first year, I bought him a blessing ML-1S (two weeks ago). Now he wants to clean this trumpet in the same manner. I've just recently read on the web that you don't really need to clean your trumpet in this manner at all, just keep it oiled and greased.

I'm not really a "brass" person so I don't know what proper cleaning practices are for a silver trumpet.

Opinions?

Definitely clean it. You need to get all the junk inside the horn out. Get a trumpet snake (I use a teflon-coated one so as not to damage the insides of the horn) and go nuts. WATCH the valves, don't use a brush on the valves or valve casings.

(that's a trombone model, but it's one of the better pics I could find quickly)

If you clean your trumpet every 6 months or so by submergence, it'll likely only need to see a pro for major repairs or maybe a chemical cleaning every couple years. Once that gunk is out, the horn will probably play better too. The only thing to avoid is using hot water, especially on a lacquered trumpet. Get it too hot, and you'll have a golden bathtub and a raw brass trumpet!

Take everything apart, wash in luke warm water with a mild detergent, let it dry, grease and lube, and put back together. Depending on how much he is playing, clean every 6-12 months. Other than that, sunbursterbasser is right, wipe the horn down when he's finished playing, especially if it's silver, and then have it chem cleaned every 12-24 months. Having it professionally cleaned also keeps things going by having the tech check alignment and replacing cork, felt, and such.

If the horn is less than a year old you might want to go ahead and have it chem cleaned now. Reason being, even when they come out of the factory burs on the metal sometimes get missed and then get knocked loose into the horn from playing. A good chem cleaning gets these things out of the horn before they do any damage to the valves or tuning slides. After that a chem clean every couple of years would do just fine if your son keeps it clean.

Respectfully submitted,

Your resident Junior/Senior High School Band Director:thu:

Getting it pro cleaned may be a good idea for this horn as well. Blessing doesn't go through and de-bur their horns like really high-end companies.

Thanks for all the advice, I appreciate it.