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My humble opinoin :
1. Fill the bath tub up with warm water and a mild dish soap.

2. Remove the valves and take them apart . Leave the corks
and pads on a clean towel to dry . Don't put them in the
bath water . Wipe the valve oil off the valves and end caps
and put them in the bath tub to soak .

3. Remove the slides and wipe all the grease off of them . Put
them in the bath tub to soak .
4. Put the horn in the bath tub to soak .

5. After 15 or 20 minutes take your snake and go through all
tubes,slides and VALVES . ALso soak you mouthpiece for a
while and snake it too .

6. Fill the horn with water and start to rotate it to wash all
the crud out .

7. Take the horn outside to the water hose and flush it out
with clean water . If it is too cold outside empty the bath
tub and use clean running water and a big glass or cup to f
flush it .

8. Rinse off all the other parts and dry them .

9. Put everything back together .

----------or, spend the bucks and get it professionally chem-cleaned (or sonic) once a year! This will work a lot better than the bathtub.

Seems to me that my horns always need some help in between the yearly cleanings, even if I'm careful about flossing, etc. This is not to undervalue our repair men and women. It's always worth it to bring the horn in, but it does add up financially. I've also heard concerns that repeated chemical cleanings gradually thin the metal, and I think that might have been among the concerns of the original poster (it would be one of mine if it was true and I had a new horn).

where can you take a tuba to get it chem-cleaned? I live in Oklahoma and I've never heard of a place around here that you can get it done. Thanks

Tubist of Time wrote:
Firstly, the valves. They are stainless steel pistons as well as a 5th rotor. How should I go about cleaning each? I have heard of soaking them in vinegar as well as some other things.

Vinegar works great. I use it to clean my tubas about every 5 or 6 months(usually around Christmas time) between annual professional cleanings.

Vinegar is a mild acid and will eat away at the gunk that has built up on the valves and in the slides without harming either.

Here's how I have done it:

Fill the slides up with vinegar and put them in some kind of container that will allow them to sit upright. A dish rack works well although anything that will hold them up without tipping over will do.

Take the valves totally apart...do not expose the felts and corks to water or vinegar. Simply put them in a safe, out of the way place to reuse later(unless you need to replace them).

Leave the 5th valve in the horn. It's a pain to take out and chances are (especially if you've never done it before) you'll damage something. It's up to you if you want to disconnect the linkage or not. If you do, beware that the thumb paddle is spring loaded and can swing around and dent any valve tubing in the area if you aren't holding on to it. Leaving the linkage on it fine too, but make sure it's very dry and that you oil it after the cleaning.

Next, the actual horn. The universal solution that keeps coming up is running lukewarm water through the horn. When you do this, should you press the valves down to let the water through different parts of the tubing, or just let it flow through the main tubing? I have also heard of filling the horn up with vinegar. (apparently, lots of people trust their instrument care to vinegar) What are the advantages to this, if any, and what is the proper way to do this?

Before you do anyting with the horn in the bathtub, make sure you pad up the bottom of the tub with old towels. The horn will slide a bit as it fills with water, so watch that too. Make sure you use lukewarm water and not hot water so that you don't risk burning lacquer off. You can use dishwashing soap if you want to, but make sure you get it all out and beware that it makes the horn really slippery. Also, soap can get under the lacquer if your lacquer is badly scratched or missing from sections, so consider that before you try it.

Filling the horn up with vinegar is a pain and takes A LOT of vinegar. I believe Doc does this though, so pm him if it strikes your fancy.

During the cleaning of the horn, the valves and slides should be out.

Also, I have heard that running a trombone snake through the leadpipe is helpful. It may just be me, but if you had particles built up in the leadpipe and you brushed them off, wouldn't they just get swept further into the horn?

You should snake your leadpipe out on a regular basis. Crap does build up in your leadpipe no matter how careful and how "clean" you think you are. Don't worry about stuff getting way into the horn...it will all come out into the first valve or out the receiver (depending on which way you snake it), and since you have the valves out and the horn in the tub anyway, it's not a big deal.

In summary, I'm just looking for the most practical way to clean the instrument and all its mechanisms without messing anything up.

You shouldn't hurt anything with "my" method. Just be very careful and watch things carefully. If you don't feel confident about this, don't do it and risk damaging something.

I'd also suggest that you spring for an annual chemical or ultra sonic cleaning on top of doing home-brew cleanings every now and then.

Oh...go through the Brasswind or Dillon Music site and order a "Brass Saver" for tuba, which is a set of tuba sized snakes and swabs. Pretty handy to have around and they work better than the regular old trombone ones.

Stefan Kac wrote:I've also heard concerns that repeated chemical cleanings gradually thin the metal, and I think that might have been among the concerns of the original poster (it would be one of mine if it was true and I had a new horn).

I think that prolonged exposure to the chemicals might ever-so-slightly eat into the metal, but a once per year cleaning by a repairman that knows what he or she is doing won't leave you with a tuba eaten up by cleaning chemicals.

From what I understand, the instrument is only exposed to the chemicals for a matter of minutes, so I don't think that this is a realistic issue.

Also, I've heard from several repairmen that the chemicals used these days (along with the ultrasonic cleaners) are way safer for both the repairmen and the instruments than they were even 10 years ago.

After 6 months of lessons on a school owned sousie, an unmistakeable odor began to emanate from the old horn. I lifted it off the stand and spun it until a dead bat fell out on the floor.
My band director suggested I take it home and bathe it. Fine, I lugged it two blocks home and filled the tub with warm water and dish detergent and climbed in there with it. The old horn looked,smelled and played better but what a ring we left in mom's tub. She never forgot to gig me about taking baths with tubas.

When you add salt to the vinegar, it functions as a catalyst and will get the green corrosion and the rest of the gunk out of the horn much better. I usually put about a quart of vinegar and a cup of salt along with a several good squirts of good dish soap in a 5-gallon bucket of hot water, dissolve all the salt, then pour it in, let it set for @ 15 minutes, then rinse, rinse, rinse, did I say rinse? It helps the looks, helps the smell, definitely gets rid of the green and other gunk, and life is great. Oh, by the way: don't empty the solution on grass or near your wife/girlfriend/significant other's flowers....

I see that most everyone states to pull the valves out, what about a rotary horn? Do you still flush the horn out with the valves in place? I am sure that my horn needs a cleaning now, but wasn't sure how to proceed. What should you expect to pay for a chemical cleaning for a 4/4 rotary tuba? I've heard opinions all over the board on this???
Steve

tubatooter1940 wrote:I lifted it off the stand and spun it until a dead bat fell out on the floor.

Try not to make the bell look so much like a cave... break off some of the stalactites forming there...