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tubawarrior wrote:I come home from rehearsal or a gig and my fiance complains about my breath tasting like "tuba mouth"...

Better get rid of that one! Run.... run away... run like the wind!

Maybe it's just bad breath and your fiancé is just making it tuba related?

I use Roché Thomas Mi-T Mist. It probably floods my mouthpiece with anthrax, but it sure does smell good!


(Two acute accents in one post? Today's my lucky day!)

What type of finish does it have? When I used to play my raw brass mouthpiece, I would get a slight odor after playing it for a while.

Or it might need a good cleaning with a mouthpiece brush soaked with dish soap

I had the same problem as Tubaing, I was playing a mouthpiece with raw brass and an instrument with raw brass and it made my mouth and hands smell like it after I played...

tubawarrior wrote:I come home from rehearsal or a gig and my fiance complains about my breath tasting like "tuba mouth"...I am assuming it's the mouthpiece

I doubt it...it's more likely the horns, full of nasty things that don't smell good.

tubawarrior wrote:...does anyone have any suggestions for something I could use to sanitize my mouthpiece?

Bathe the horns, buy a mouthpiece sanitizer such as Players Magic Mist Spray...only $3.45 at http://www.hickeys.com/pages/brclean.htm.

Or, you could just brush your teeth after playing and before engaging in activities with your fiancee...um, a "fiance" is a male engaged to be married...something you're not telling us?

I also use Roché Thomas Mi-T Mist. It's cheap and the stuff works great, just spray the mouthpiece a couple of time after you are done playing and it smells good! And it is also good if someone wants to try your mouthpiece and you worry about germs and other things.

You can also go to your nearest Dollar Tree or 99 Cents Only Store and, after you clean out your tuba, run some cheap mouthwash through your valves and mouthpipe. I always liked red Lavoris, which you could get at the 99 Cents Store when I left California. It makes a good tasting tuba. For the mouthpiece, just use dish detergent.

Rinse it out with some warm water after you get done playing . It doesn't get any cheaper or simpler then that .

If you have thoroughly cleaned both the leadpipe of your tuba and your mouthpiece, applied and wiped off the Min-T-mist antiseptic, give it another rinse so there is nothing masking the odor or taste, and you still get "tuba mouth" after playing, then what Dan said: you have raw brass getting to you from somewhere, somehow, and you should either get a new mouthpiece or have the one you use sent out to be buffed and replated.

Be careful with other cleaners and boiling it, though. Heavy cleaners could strip the plating (if it's plated) off. If you boil it, monitor it at all times. I've seen a few friends who have just let their pieces sit in boiling water and now they are the nastiest things ever.

The Jackson wrote:Be careful with other cleaners and boiling it, though. Heavy cleaners could strip the plating (if it's plated) off. If you boil it, monitor it at all times. I've seen a few friends who have just let their pieces sit in boiling water and now they are the nastiest things ever.

And, if you add some onions, celery and carrots, maybe some potatoes and nice bits of chicken, we're talkin' a really yummy soup.