Reply To: sanitizing reeds?

[nafmeadmin]

I personally carry Listerine, and the germicide/ mouthpiece sanitizer products offered by the local music stores for what I call emergency situations. I only use it for mouthpieces or to wipe an instrument down. I still question whether this is really sanitary. My belief is once someone uses a reed it theirs.
One of the obligations of playing a woodwind instrument is having reeds, and students should normally have more than one reed in their case. I do keep some cheap unknown brand name reeds for these types of situations, or for the students to try out instruments, or mouthpieces. I normally break the tip and throw them away after being used.
Snedekerj282 shares my concerns with student health issues. I would never use a previously played reed, so why would I expect my students to do it.
Frhorngal has the best solution. The 15-20 minute band librarian idea takes care of any students with financial challenges.
In my opinion, yes it’s a bad idea to try and sanitize reeds.