How We Are Responding to Health Concerns

Here are the steps we’re taking at Charles Double Reed Company to help protect the health and safety of our customers and staff members.

Thankfully, as of now, no one affiliated with Charles Double Reeds has contracted COVID-19. If any of our staff members develops symptoms or comes into contact with infected individuals we are asking them to stay home and follow the CDC’s instructions.

Basic Monitoring:

We’re closely monitoring local and national reports on the evolving impact of COVID-19 and taking immediate action based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization and applicable public health agencies.

Basic Cleaning:

We have greatly expanded sanitizing procedures in general. We frequently disinfect often-touched surfaces such as door handles, countertops, keypads, restroom surfaces, repair tools, reed making tools, and whatever seems to be a likely place to clean.

We Sanitize Reeds using Multiple Methods:

  1. Our Charles brand reeds are made in advance, sanitized with Sterisol, and fully dried a minimum of 3 days. They are then packed in separate new, clean single reed plastic boxes.
  2. Reeds we sell from other makers are sanitized when they arrive in the shop and allowed to dry over the course of 3 days minimum. Once the reeds are dry we repack them in fresh, unused, protective plastic boxes. 
  3. Individual reeds are packed for shipment by a staff member trained in sterile procedures.

Repair Department Methods and Practices

  1. Instruments arriving for repair are checked for their safe arrival and then allowed to fully acclimate for at least 3 days before repairs begin.
  2. Repairs are done using gloves and masks in most cases.
  3. Repaired instruments are cleaned and surface sanitized before they go back in their case and prepared for shipment.
  4. Instruments in need of substantial cleaning will be accepted for repair only if cleaning is part of the repair process.

Trialing Instruments

  1. Instruments are sent for a ten day trial with your personal guarantee that the recipient and others in contact with the instrument are virus free.
  2. If you have the instrument for 10 days and do not contact us, it will be considered sold and your check will be deposited. No returns after 10 days without you notifying us by direct contact (no phone messages).
  3. If you catch a cold or virus during the trial, we require that you let us know before shipping the instrument back to us.
  4. We require a second complete form of contact information in case of emergency.

For additional information or concerns, please contact us at (603) 356-9890 or service@charlesmusic.com or share your comments below.

 

4 thoughts on “How We Are Responding to Health Concerns

  1. Thanks so much for sharing this information!
    With much respect and appreciation,

    1. You are very welcome!

  2. What is the Sterisol procedure for reeds? Can it be used with students when they reed troubles or want to try more than one new one? Is it safe if in the mouth? Would one make up a whole quart of it for this situation?

    1. I am going to make a write up about that and post it on the front page of our website. The answer is that sterisol concentrate should be mixed with the appropriate amount of water. The large bottle makes a full gallon. Don’t make a full gallon! Just make what you might need for a few days at a time. I make about a half a quart. I add a few tablespoons worth of 91% alcohol to the mix. I wash reeds in this for about 2 minutes and then shake them off. The taste is pretty plain, and it is entirely safe to use. I will go into lots more detail shortly on the website.

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