Paige’s Music, a supplier of musical instruments as well as a musical instrument cleaning service for central Indiana, used to take 15-20 minutes or more to clean each instrument. The instruments brought to them usually came from its school rental program, which meant that these instruments were dirtier than the ones you might see from typical musicians.
All year round, but especially during the school year, businesses like Paige’s manage a steady flow of returned school-owned and privately-owned instruments requiring repair and cleaning—as many as 3,000 per month.
Their clients—music directors, parents, and musicians—expect to receive their instruments back in pristine condition. The old solution was simply to hand scrub using special brushes down into blind holes and crevices, using toxic chemicals such as chromic acid in order to make completely certain that the instrument was as clean as possible. Clearly, this was a situation in need of innovation.
That innovation came knocking at Paige’s Music’s door one day when a salesman loaned them his ultrasonic blind cleaning machine as a favor. The staff at Paige’s Music were amazed at how well and fast the unit cleaned. They were hooked—and they decided to get their own machine from Omegasonics designed specifically to clean musical instruments.
They worked with the Omegasonics team to customize machines to address their size, shape, space and power needs, and now, their two Omegasonics floor models and two table top machines are constantly in use and have transformed their business. A minimum of hand scrubbing only when needed, and no more dangerous chemicals.
Instruments that used to take 15-20 minutes or more just to clean are now perfectly cleaned in 3-5 minutes. This increased efficiency has not only given them a great ROI, but also a distinct competitive advantage over other shops in the area.
“If you’re doing any kind of volume, you can’t afford not to have an ultrasonic unit in your shop,” Tim Roethler, Director of Repair Services at Paige’s Music, says. “Since we started using ultrasonic cleaners for our musical instrument cleaning, our customers now expect and receive the highest level of service.
We’re doing things we couldn’t do before, and even customers with instruments from competing shops are coming to us just for cleaning. We are getting so much extra business from using the ultrasonic machines, we don’t need to charge an additional fee for this service.”
So, How Does an Ultrasonic Cleaner Work?
Omegasonics’ ultrasonic cleaning technology is created by generators that produce high-frequency electricity. This electricity is then converted into sound waves through a transducer, which makes these waves vibrate. As these high-frequency sound waves travel through water, tiny vacuum bubbles form and repeatedly implode upon any surface they encounter, removing even microscopic dirt particles. These cavitation bubbles reach and clean grooves, cracks and hidden crevices on objects immersed in the liquid tank of the ultrasonic cleaning unit more effectively than alternative methods.
Best of all, ultrasonic cleaning technology does not require toxic chemicals or hands-on work, and Omegasonics units use only water-based detergent solutions, which are better for the environment.
Choosing the Right Omegasonics Musical Instrument Cleaner
Omegasonics offers units to fit nearly every size, power and cost requirement. Each one offers gentle, precision cleaning in less time than hand cleaning and easy setup. Omegasonics’ units can be designed to meet your specific needs, including to fit extra large and uniquely shaped instruments. For example, you can fit up to a ¾ tuba inside the Music Pro, but for a full tuba bell housing, you’ll need the Music Pro Plus. If you want an even bigger musical instrument cleaner, Omegasonics can make you whatever you want. You give us your ideal size tank, and we will build it for you.
All Music Pro units come with a flushing system as a standard feature, so, while you are cleaning the instrument, you can flush it out at the same time. Filtration is also built in standard into each Music Pro cleaning unit—this enables gunk and grime to be collected and discarded so that the detergent solution can be easily used again and again.
The Music Pro comes standard as a 120V unit, and we can also offer the Music Pro Plus as a 120V, though it comes 208 volts standard. All Omegasonics ultrasonic cleaners are also warrantied 2 years against manufacturing defects. Want to find out more about how Omegasonics can revolutionize your musical instrument cleaning business? Contact one of our ultrasonic cleaning consultants today at Omegasonics or give our experts a call at (888) 420-4445.
