Reka VS Brass Saver cleaning kits

[rascaljim]

I have the Brass Saver for tuba and I was fairly satisfied.

I have pulled some of the nylon cords a little too much cleaning my horns and it's time to replace them before they break and I have a cleaning brush lodged in my valve section. I was thinking about ordering the brass saver again because, although it only held up for about a year, it did clean the gunk out pretty well between chem cleanings. Anyone know about those REKA kits and how they stack up?

Any other ideas?

Thanks

JL

[fifthnotules]

I was never very happy with my brass savers. After being fed up with those for a while, I started to get creative and try to find some alternatives. After about five or six failed attempts at devising a way to really clean my tuba I finally found something that works.

Basically, I hooked a garden hose up to my shower and used one of those pressure nozzles that you twist (to change it from a spray to a stream of water). I had to go to the hardware store to get the two adapters I needed to hook the hose up to the pipe (after removing the shower head). I guess I should mention that I live in an apartment and do not have access to a garden hose or yard. If you do have access to those things then this would be a lot easier, and probably would not require you to go to the hardware store.

Basically I just blast all the gunk out with a jet stream of water. It worked great! Cleaning it like this took half the time snaking/swabbing the horn used to take, and I got about 5 times as much gunk out the horn that I EVER did with brass savers.

I am very happy with this - especially after all the frustration I experienced trying to make the brass savers and my other "experiments" do the job.

I hope this helps!

[Kayla]

...Basically, I hooked a garden hose up to my shower and used one of those pressure nozzles that you twist (to change it from a spray to a stream of water)....

...Basically I just blast all the gunk out with a jet stream of water. It worked great! Cleaning it like this took half the time snaking/swabbing the horn used to take, and I got about 5 times as much gunk out the horn that I EVER did with brass savers...

That is what I do with my tuba, mainly for the parts of tubing I cannot reach with a brush or snake. I also use it to get in the many various small, hard-to-reach places outside of the tuba.

The different sprays were also handy when I polished my instrument (silver plating).

[mclaugh]

Basically I just blast all the gunk out with a jet stream of water. Cleaning it like this took half the time snaking/swabbing the horn used to take, and I got about 5 times as much gunk out the horn that I EVER did with brass savers.

That's fine if you only need to swab out your horn a couple or three times a year, but if you clean the valve casings and slides weekly or every time you play (yes, some of us actually do), it adds up to a tremendous waste of water.

mclaugh "who thinks if you're cleaning your slides frequently enough, there should never be much gunk build up in the first place."

[brianggilbert]

It's funny this popped back up today - I was searching just yesterday for "REKA" in the archives to compare my experience...

I gave my Besson a good bath yesterday. I actually went the extra mile in that while the previous owner bathed the horn prior to selling, I wanted to be sure I got everything.

I did the vinegar bath (as has been beaten to death here) - and it worked wonders! Stuff was coming out green (reflective of the corrosion that built up a bit. Followed it with a warm sudsy soak snake and rinse. I snaked everything out with the REKA (which I have used twice), and I too found the orange swab ends to be a bit smallish for the bore diameter of the slide openings and the valve casings.

I'm a little disapointed that the REKA kit doesn't quite live up to the hype - on the other hand I guess it's just about as good as the old fashioned snake without the scratching the innards. I think it might miss some stuff in the horn because the orange swabs are alittle mis-sized (at least for my horn).