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Gold plating the slides and valve caps is purely a comestic pimping of the horn. I do not know how much something like this would cost. It does look neat though especially on satin silver horns.

My experience with gold plated instruments is that the gold plating is so thin over silver plating that there is no real difference between it or the silver plate that was laid down as a base coat.

The other thing is that gold plating wears off more quickly than any other finish. That can be more of a problem on tubas than on smaller instruments because we tend to slide the tuba across our lap to lower it while resting. Look at the wear pattern on any old silver-plated tuba that has been played a lot and you will see what I mean. Gold looks great when it is new, but it does not last.

There is another coating called titanium nitride, or "TIN" that looks like gold but is much harder. It is used on upscale faucets. I'd like to know if it would work on brass instruments and/or mouthpieces.

I believe Houser does this coating, Bloke offers this option for his blokepieces. It's fairly reasonable in cost as well.(if I remember correctly.

Like someone else said, gold wears off quickly -- probably why it ends up in low contact places, like valve caps, slides, and sometimes as a wash inside the bell. Gold-plated mouthpieces are a little different than the other accents -- not sure it *sounds* different, but it sure feels different. For me, I don't like gold mouthpieces at all. Too slippery. People with certain allergies though find this a great alternative, at least before stainless steel/plastic came on the market.

Gold is different on other instruments though. You can get flutes with solid gold headjoints, and though I know nothing about flutes, I can't imagine using a different metal for a that big of a chunk of the instrument *wouldn't* change the way it sounds. (I've even heard of *solid* gold flutes, which cost over $30k -- why not a solid gold York-ish 6/4 BAT? It can be called the "Midas" model. And it'll cost well over $100k. And we'll still all want it. )

Yes, there are "solid" gold flutes. The high density of the metal deadens the overtones produced, they are outrageously expensive, and are currently all the rage.

Even more extreme is the platinum flute. So heavy that flutists can't hold it up for long periods.

Myself, I'm waiting for the diamond flute, so that the DeBeers family can control the prices, and keep just any piker from owning one...

Check out this ad for 40's vintage King tubas:

http://www.hnwhite.com/King/Low%20Brass ... 0Large.jpg" target="_blank" target="_blank

Look at the price of the gold burnished Artist's model. With case about $775.

If I can get Sherman to crank up the Wayback Machine and take me to 1940, I'm gettin' one...

The Big Ben wrote:Check out this ad for 40's vintage King tubas:

http://www.hnwhite.com/King/Low%20Brass ... 0Large.jpg" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Look at the price of the gold burnished Artist's model. With case about $775.

If I can get Sherman to crank up the Wayback Machine and take me to 1940, I'm gettin' one...

Oooooo! Can i get one with the "fourth register extra valve?" Please, can I?!?!

The Houser plating method is probably not suitable for brass.

From the Houser website: "H-Kote is a very different process than plating. Stainless mouthpieces are enclosed in a vacuum chamber and heated to 900 deg. F. Titanium targets inside the chamber are vaporized by an electric arc. The resultant vapor is deposited on the stainless with an electric charge forming a high energy bond. The entire process takes about 6 hours. Once cooled, the mouthpieces are lapped to a final finish. The resulting surface is covered with a thin, hard, biochemically inert, micro-lattice ceramic composite."

thanks for clarifying, i was unsure if it could be used for brass. I've never looked into it for brass mouthpieces. Maybe when somebody makes a stainless steel tuba we can H-Kote it!

very expensive these days

windshieldbug wrote:Yes, there are "solid" gold flutes. The high density of the metal deadens the overtones produced, they are outrageously expensive, and are currently all the rage.

Even more extreme is the platinum flute. So heavy that flutists can't hold it up for long periods.

Myself, I'm waiting for the diamond flute, so that the DeBeers family can control the prices, and keep just any piker from owning one...

Diamond? Naaah. Too pedestrian. I'm going for the new Brannen made of depleted uranium.

OldsRecording wrote:Too pedestrian. I'm going for the new Brann[e]n made of depleted uranium.

I like it. Just make Woburn, Mass look work like Chernobyl. Talk about exclusive... with that half-life, you can only play or attend one concert for 15 minutes in your entire life.

"Ah- Section 2, Row 5, seat 26. Right over there. And here's your radiation badge, please keep it visible at all times... "

Art Hovey wrote:There is another coating called titanium nitride, or "TIN" that looks like gold but is much harder. It is used on upscale faucets. I'd like to know if it would work on brass instruments and/or mouthpieces.

According to The Horn Guys, Willson is using Titanium Nitride as the coating for their inner slide tubes, as opposed to chrome, etc. http://www.hornguys.com/hornsinstocktbn.htm "The inner slide tubes are plated with a titanium nitride coating giving the inner slide tubes a golden appearance." It appears that it will work on brass. I wonder if there are any negative effects? I'm betting it would last a good, long time too.