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Hi folks - I’ve very recently made my first foray into brass and have picked up a Besson Bb from about 1910, seems in decent shape and am gradually managing to get a scale out of it.

But today it’s started making a crazy loud knocking/popping sound when I play (I’d share a video but don’t think I can on here).

Does this sound like a familiar issue? Or have I managed to destroy my tuba in three days…

It could be spit stuck inside one of your valves tuning slides from what it sounds like, try taking out the tuning slides and emptying them somewhere and see if that solves it.

An easy way to check if it is this is to just hold down a valve and blow air through if, if you hear a bubbly like sound from water/spit this is probably your problem. Then you can just hold down the valve and take out the tuning slide from the correlating valve.

I would still recommend doing this even if there isn't a sound if you have been playing it for a long time in those three days.

Hi - thank you and you’re right, I couldn’t fathom that just spit was causing such a loud noise but I guess that’s what a big metal echo chamber will do! Thought I’d emptied everything but found a sneaky slide round the back (yes, I’m very new to all this ) which had a bit of moisture in there and all now seems sorted. Thanks!!