Think I'd better clean my horn!

[Paul Evans]

I don't frequent this sight as often as some, so this topic may have been covered already. Check out this link:

http://www.ntnu.no/gemini/2002-06e/39.htm

Any of us out there with similar problems?

[Tubaryan12]

and to think I've had band directors say "playing your horn will make your cold go away"

[Joe Baker]

I've found that playing my horn makes my friends, wife, children and dogs go away, but it's always made a cold worse (and made me dizzy to try when I had a cold).
__________________________________
Joe Baker, who always cleaned his horn afterward if he had to play it while ill.

[windshieldbug]

Any of us out there with similar problems?

Just don't play a horn after Olga's had it!

[mTaUrBkA]

My school's trashed miraphone 186 was tested by a biology class at my school. It tested positive for ecoli........and the director still won't get it chem cleaned, or even fixed! Tuning slides don't move.....and its sooooo dirty and gross that it's extremely stuffy and probably filled with stuff worse than ecoli! I love it when band directors think low brass doesn't matter!

[windshieldbug]

My school's trashed miraphone 186 was tested by a biology class at my school. It tested positive for ecoli........and the director still won't get it chem cleaned, or even fixed! Tuning slides don't move.....and its sooooo dirty and gross that it's extremely stuffy and probably filled with stuff worse than ecoli!

Sounds just right for eBay!

[ArnoldGottlieb]

My school's trashed miraphone 186 was tested by a biology class at my school. It tested positive for ecoli........and the director still won't get it chem cleaned, or even fixed! Tuning slides don't move.....and its sooooo dirty and gross that it's extremely stuffy and probably filled with stuff worse than ecoli! I love it when band directors think low brass doesn't matter!

So then, what's stopping you from putting it in your own bathtub and cleaning it?
Peace. ASG

[mTaUrBkA]

My school's trashed miraphone 186 was tested by a biology class at my school. It tested positive for ecoli........and the director still won't get it chem cleaned, or even fixed! Tuning slides don't move.....and its sooooo dirty and gross that it's extremely stuffy and probably filled with stuff worse than ecoli! I love it when band directors think low brass doesn't matter!

So then, what's stopping you from putting it in your own bathtub and cleaning it?
Peace. ASG

All the tuning slides and valve caps are stuck......so there's no way to access anything to clean it

[windshieldbug]

So then, what's stopping you from putting it in your own bathtub and cleaning it?

Maybe he has no access to a bathtub...

[ArnoldGottlieb]

My school's trashed miraphone 186 was tested by a biology class at my school. It tested positive for ecoli........and the director still won't get it chem cleaned, or even fixed! Tuning slides don't move.....and its sooooo dirty and gross that it's extremely stuffy and probably filled with stuff worse than ecoli! I love it when band directors think low brass doesn't matter!

So then, what's stopping you from putting it in your own bathtub and cleaning it?
Peace. ASG

All the tuning slides and valve caps are stuck......so there's no way to access anything to clean it

Okay then, perhaps I was a bit harsh. I don't feel so old having graduated High School in 1985, but I remember band directors showing us how to unstick slides and valve caps. I still think you could get it in the tub though, who knows, maybe some slides will come unstuck. My point is/was that it's no ones responsibility more than your's to get a working instrument, especially when you have an actual instrument to start with. Good Luck.
Peace. ASG

[Rick Denney]

All the tuning slides and valve caps are stuck......so there's no way to access anything to clean it

Your safety is your own responsibility. If you think the horn is unsafe to play because of germs, then only you will be motivated to make it safe.

I'll bet that if you were to pour a gallon of white vinegar into the bell, rotate it around until it come out the mouthpiece receiver, put a cork in the receiver, and then stand in the tub with the tuba and spend about 15 minutes shaking your bootie, and then draining it, you'd get a lot of the crud out of the instrument. You could then rinse it good by using a hose (with the brass end cut off, and flushing room-temperature water through the thing while actuating the valves. Turn and drain as much as necessary to empty the horn. Remember it will be heavy when full of water. Then, if you feel you must disinfect it, pour a couple of bottles of hydrogen peroxide into it, repeat the shaking routine, and then rinse thoroughly. That won't get it all, of course, but it should make it at least as sanitary as, say, my tubas (except the Holton, which was very recently deslimed).

Rick "who spent considerable time polishing and improving the school instruments entrusted to him out of sense of personal pride" Denney

[iiipopes]

And as I have posted elsewhere, add some salt to the vinegar. It makes it work better. Of course, rinse, rinse, rinse. Did I forget to say rinse? Usually I also add some mild dishwashing soap as well. It turned my sousaphone from smelling like a dead animal to having absolutely no smell at all but for a tiny bit of real "brass" smell.