TromboneChat

Just bought an 60 year horn with the original case. The case is in good shape and I'd like to keep it but has a very strong musty (old) smell. Is there any way to remove the smell?

In my experience? No. I did the works on a '60s 6H case I had. Febreeze, leaving it out in the sun, baking soda. Nothing got the smell entirely. I ended up throwing it away.

^ Same here. Tried everything - potions, UV, hope.

Bonfire.

The source of that smell is mildew under the lining inside the case. It's VERY hard to remove.

If you are willing to strip out the lining, treat the underlying wood to kill the mildew, and reline the case you may have some success. That's an awful lot of work.

I heard on the old Forum of a guy who put cases inside cars being treated with ozone (done by many body shops) who claimed success. Never had a chance to test this out.

I've had success with Simple Solution pet stain and odor remover http://www.simplesolution.com/dog-odor- ... mover-32oz . I spray it on the offending case interior/exterior as necessary. It took three applications to overcome a particularly stubborn case, but one application usually works fine for me. As always, YMMV.

I've bought quite a few vintage horns and had to throw away quite a few cases due to that musty smell, amongst others a beautiful King Alligator and an Olds luxury leather case that both looked like new. If it's really bad, you can forget about sprays, sun, pet stain stuff, etc.

The only remedy I haven't tried yet that seems promising is ozone treatment. That's used to get rid of decay scent...

Should you succeed in getting rid of that smell, it would be interesting to hear how you did it. Good luck!

I've, also, tried a couple of different times and it just never worked. Now, I had one vintage case that had no problem to start with, so kept that one. But my experience with the others have led me to just buy a brand new case for used instruments

The new case is going to look good, smell good, and in some cases, offer better protection.

Put a dish of vinegar inside the case. Put it and leave it for a few days. Sometimes a rag or washcloth in the dish helps.
This is also good to remove the smells in your car or truck.

And if you want to scrub automotive or a case, use Dawn dish soap with vinegar and water. Scrub with a brush.

If the carcus, latches, hinges, and handles are solid I've had good luck ripping out the guts and re-doing them. It's not that hard. Just take pictures so you know how to put it back together and save all the hard bits to reusage. It's simple glue/screw/& brads construction.

I’ve had some luck cleaning a couple of cases at one of those self-service car carpet/interior cleaning stations at the car wash. It’s not the most perfect 100% solution, but it did minimize the odor enough to make the cases usable.

It might be more worth your effort to ditch the case, I had a particularly nasty case for a crappy trumpet that I left out for days at a time in the garage, tried the works like everyone mentioned.
I removed the entire interior from the case so it was just the shell on the outside, and it still smelt terrible. Beauty is skin deep, but manure runs to the core.

Hobart wrote: ↑Sat Oct 17, 2020 10:54 am ...
I removed the entire interior from the case so it was just the shell on the outside, and it still smelt terrible. Beauty is skin deep, but manure runs to the core.

Actually, it's mildew and it's INSIDE the wood shell. Tough to get at at best.

I bought a 50 year old horn and the case reeked. After trying other things I read about OdoBan. I bought the concentrate at Home Depot. Mixed it strong. I would spray in very well and then Let it dry in the sun. I did this all day. Spray-dry-spray. The smell finally went away.