Thomann Cleaning Set Alto Tenor Sax

I didn't realise how much I was missing with my old bargain-basement pull through swab. The cloth, neck and body pull-throughs are all made of a fine but heavy and absorbent, almost suede-ette cloth. The whole set is nicely made and feels good, but the cord needs to be a tougher fabric (more on that later). The cord has weights inside the fabric, which makes it super easy to use without scratching.

I always use the body swab first - but the first few times it got stuck on the octave pip of my (Jupiter) alto, and took about 10 minutes to tease it through. Do not yank hard on the cord, it is not that strong. After 5-6 uses and a wash, the cloth relaxed a bit and now fits through easily. Make sure the cloth is rolled as thin as possible when you put it in the bell, redo if you need to. If it does stick, go slow and just tease the bit you can reach. You could trim the cloth to be smaller for an alto, but I did not. It dries very well.

I use the cloth to just swab some of the normally-shut pads before using a Keyleaves Spitsponge or similar. I think it would be fair for polishing but I never do.

The neck crook - I don't use it for sax, I let the neck dry on its own. It is a good pull through for flute instead of a cleaning rod. I use it as a pullthrough for clarinet too, but the rough register pip of the clarinet ripped the fabric of the cord, and once ripped it will get run and get worse. The cord also has weights at the end for ease.

The cord is basically like a shoelace made of a very soft thread. A tougher shoelace would be better. If you're good with a needle and thread you can fix it, or just don't use it with a clarinet.

The case is simple and strong, but if you're practicing every day it's not worth putting the cloths away - just put them on a radiator to dry after use. To get it all in the case, lay all the cloths flat and fold into quarters, then roll it up. The case screws together, mine is 21cm x 7 x 7 when full.

Overall it's not perfect but good value. It helps with taking cleaning seriously after practice, and so helps you make the pads last longer. Once the too-tight phase has passed, cleaning is much faster than with cheaper swabs.