HodgeSilk Baritone Saxophone Swab - Purple

Works great! My son runs the swab through the neck pieces (the top coil and the detachable parts) of his baritone sax (Yamaha YBS-52) after each use. Easy to use--no fishing weights through the bottom of the instrument and rotating a huge instrument to try and grab a weighted string. The Hodge swab comes out nice and wet--really picks up residual moisture. Love that it's washable. I threw away the washing instructions and couldn't find any online, but just hand washed this one in Woolite after about a month & a half of use. Rinsed super well. Left on a towel to dry. Swab fabric picked up a couple of minor tears/snags early on--not sure what it caught on, but didn't seem to hurt anything in the sax or the effectiveness of the swab. MUCH better than leaving gunk to grow into nastiness inside of his horn! I play on buying more when this one wears out, for sure.

The fabric is prone to a bit of ripping, as other reviewers photos suggest, but the overall design is quite good and works better than any of the alternatives for swabbing the bow of a bari sax.

When I bought this swab, I'd been playing my bari for about a year, once a week. I'd tried all the other methods of cleaning it and nothing worked. There were even a few times I was horrified that something would never come out of the bend of my saxophone ever again. (Thankfully it did come out with some extra effort).Do not listen when people say it isn't important to clean your instrument. The spit valve helps, but it starts closed when your horn is put away and all that moisture grows. By the time I found this swab and got to use it for the first time, plenty of things had started to grow. It came out NASTY! However, with cleaning after every use, it only comes out wet anymore and dries quickly.The other complaint I've read was that it tears easily. Unfortunately this is true, but take a look where you put the swab into the neck of the sax and you'll see a piece of metal that sticks out into the space within the neck. With time, of course it's going to wear through the swab. This is not due to poor workmanship, but due to how the neck is designed.What I've found works to avoid ripping the swab too quickly is to aim so the seam of the swab faces away from the inner protrusion. Even when it's ripped, keep the rip facing away from that area. The swab will still work. I know it sucks to have to replace it every 6 months or so, but that's maintenance for you. You have to buy reeds all the time, so add this to your shipping list when it's getting ragged and be proud that your horn is being maintained and will be much less likely to need even more costly repairs! I'd rather this than have a sax that stinks to high heavens and needs professional deep cleaning and pads replaced.

Worked great, but it breaks down after a year or so.

Although this sounds extremely disgusting, I use the school's baritone saxophone and unfortunately had to share it with someone last year. That is no longer the case and I am now the only one who uses it. So, I decided I would try out some sort of cleaning device for my precious bari so that it wouldn't be so disgusting anymore (no joke, the neck and the curve were absolutely nasty). I came across this and decided to purchase it. It works fantastically! After rehearsals every day, I place this flexible swab through the neck and the curve of my bari sax. It also fits completely through my mouthpiece as well (I use a Yamaha 5C bari sax mouthpiece). It gets out almost all the moisture and will remove all of that old, gross, built up spit. It's very effective and I would definitely recommend it!

Must have for any baritone sax player, highly recommend.

Honestly it does exactly what you need it to do. I'd say the only rough part about it is pushing it into the neck to make sure you can get the most use out of it. It FEELS like it's gonna break because of the amount of force you have to use but in reality it won't because the material is filmsy enough to go through the next while also being sturdy enough to allow you to push it in.

Don't know how I played Baritone Sax for 30 years without this in my case. It's a great accessory and does a good job of removing moisture from the crook of the baritone body.

Does a perfect job cleaning round the bend in the Bari neck.

It's a little fiddly to get it in the Bari's neck, but it works. Be ready to ignore the x-rated jokes. ;)

Just don’t buy it it’s a waste of money

I bought the Hodge Swab because of its length. It only goes into the ‘S’ part way. Not sure why. The shorter swab at less than half the price would be a better option. I did not notice the colour options at checkout and received the default BLACK. It is difficult to see in my Bari Sax case. My mistake. The Hodge BSB1 is over priced and not worth it. But a cheaper, shorter swab.

Does the job, but abit flimsy, I wish it would start very bendy and on end and get stiffer toward the othe end to stop it bending as you try to push it in the sax