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I read in an article in my research for buying a new instrument a description of how to clean the inside if a euphonium/tuba (below) Do any of you actually follow a procedure similar to this???

Line your bathtub with a towels or a large beach towel to protect both your tub and the horn.

Place the tuba in the tub with the bell down. Run warm water into the lead pipe with as much pressure as you can get. Keep the water flowing until the water runs clear.

Turn the tuba over several times until no more water comes out of the horn.

Dry the outside of the horn using the soft cloth.

Remove the valve slides and shake out all of the water and place on a soft towel on the counter next to your sink. Using the snake brush and a few drops of liquid detergent, clean the inside of each slide and rinse in the sink using warm water.

Take out all of the valves and springs, lining them up in order and removing the bottom caps. Using mild detergent and cotton swabs, clean the inside of each valve port and place back on the towel in order. Using the cotton swabs, clean the bottom caps.

Turn the body of the tuba over several more times to get out the remainder of the water before replacing the valves and slides.

Use hot water and a mild detergent to clean your mouthpiece using the mouthpiece brush.

Spread a small amount of petroleum jelly on each slide and insert into the tuba. Make sure you wipe off any excess lubricant.

Place a drop of valve oil on the threads of the bottom caps and replace the bottom caps. Put each spring back into the valve casing.

Oil each valve with valve oil and replace the valve in its proper place. Before tightening the top valve cap, put a drop of valve oil around the thread and tighten.

Polish the outside of the instrument using the micro fiber cloth.

Hokkmike,, why not save on your water bill and get in tub with Euphonium and take a bath! Seriously, I take my tubas out in yard, lay an old blanket down, flush dish washing soap through them and then flush them out with clear water( once a year)---------------doesn't mess up house and bride stays happier. I basically follow rest of procedure you spelled out--------------with silver horns, I include an exterior cleaning with Wrights liquid silver polish. So, to answer your question specifically, yes I give my tubas and euphoniums baths-----------------for last 50 years. Now---------if you live in Fairbanks ,alaska, you may have to use the bathtub.

I usually take out the valves and pull slides then put my tuba in the whirlpool tub (where when full the water comes to just two or three inches below the top of bell). I fill the tuba with warm (not hot water) and add a little Dawn dish soap (I have used Yamaha Brass soap in the past but not sure if it is worth extra $) and turn on jets. I usually let the jets run for a cycle or two then drain, wash the suds down with the hose from the shower till gone. I drain water out of tuba then fill tub again with clear water run jets drain and repeat until soap is out.

If you are using a whirlpool don't put into too much soap or you will have a lot of bubles.

This is how I give my tuba a bubble bath in the hot tub.

I saw a euphonium with crumpled bell and it was done try to wash like above!

With the euphoniums, I take them into the shower with me. That ensures that the water doesn't get too cold or too hot. Liquid dishwashing soap usually works just fine, although some CLR can help if you have tough stuff in there. Just be careful around the knobs and shower head! And instead of Vaseline, I'd suggest STP. Better on the metal, relatively inexpensive, lasts a LONG time, and you use very little. One can from a mass marketer or auto parts store will last at least one lifetime, likely on to your kids, grandkids, and even great-grandkids (depending on how many instruments you're using it on and how often the instruments get cleaned).

It's a little more difficult to do it with a tuba, especially a 5/4 or 6/4, and especially if you have a small shower. If you can get into a school's locker room shower pretty much by yourself, there's plenty of room for doing it.

sinfonian wrote:..... If you are using a whirlpool don't put into too much soap or you will have a lot of bubbles......

My wife and I 'bout ruined a hotel room a few years ago by putting bubble bath into a Jacuzzi!

Dan, do you have any pictures of that bubble bath escapade-----------a picture is worth a thousand words(someone said). I would pay that 850 for those "images"

Brown Mule wrote:Dan, do you have any pictures of that bubble bath escapade-----------a picture is worth a thousand words(someone said). I would pay that 850 for those "images"

Yes. I do. Except that usually I put the water into the bell. When I'm on the road, I'm always looking for a flexible shower head that unscrews. Then I can get some real pressure and run the water through the lead pipe. Horn always feels a little better after I do it.

I prefer to give both my sousa and tuba a sauna at least twice a year,
use minimal water, when they begin to sweat throw them in the snow .
Wipe gently and dry .

goodgigs wrote:

toobaa wrote:??

Actualy, there's no reason not to use a dishwasher for mouthpiece, lead pipe, and detachable valveset (dissasembled).

But why? It doesn't take very long at all to scrub all of that stuff out if it is disassembled. Plus you won't waste so much power, water or dish soap washing it by hand either.

DISCLAIMER:If you don't know how the instrument comes apart and goes back together DO NOT take your valve cluster apart! This is especially true of rotors. With rotors there are LOTS of small parts that can be lost, and if you do lose them they aren't cheap to replace.

Do you really give your instruments baths?
Yes

Do you really give your instruments baths [using OP's excerpted method]?
No

I tend to flush out my tubas a couple times a year with warm soapy water just from the main tuning slide to the leadpipe which is where most of the dirt collects.

I never bath my tubas - just imagine how heavy a 6/4 would be full of water? Are likely to either damage the tuba, or do ones back in try to lift.

Bloke, I hope you are not shooting that stuff in my face. It was a sincere question.

Well here's a sincere response. Your method is terrible. This is better by far.

Dis-assemble the horn. If you have rotors this could be tricky, but you should learn how to do this at some point since you don't want to have to run to the repairman everytime your valve sticks a little. Use a couple of towels and keep things orderly, 1st valve rotor with 1st valve screws and rotor caps etc., this will help you remember how it goes back together. Miraphone used to sell a kit I think, but I made a kit once that I used for several years, so it can't be that complex! If you can find someone to show you how to do it, you'll find out it's not really very complicated.

If you have a piston horn, it's easier to take apart, but keep it orderly as well, don't get the felts and corks wet, it will make them fall apart.

Take the horn outside and run water from a hose through the lead pipe and tubing and take a snake and clean out those tubes and slides as you run water through. You might get a little better cleaning using warm water from a tub, but from my experience it seems it's just as good if you do the outside treatment a couple times a year, don't give the crud time to crystallize inside the horn!

Clean the valves off with water and a soft brush like a toothbrush.

And, that's it. I think you know to get the water out when you re- assemble and use rotor oil on rotors, slide greas on slides etc.

It costs a little more, but I line the tub with Rubber Maid suction cup rubber shower mats. Just stick them all over the place and they stay put. A towel will float in the tub even when wet (at least in my experience).

With the big horn I usually rent a hotel room with a large Jacuzzi tub. Completely polish the horn (it's silver). I then fill the tub with hot water and pour in some Dawn dish detergent and run it for a while to get any "foreign matter" out of the jet pipes. Then drain it and fill it with warm water, add some Dawn and then put the completely disassembled horn and the bigger parts into the tub and run it for about an hour.

Snake out all the tubing, then drain it and empty the horn and refill the tub with warm clear water and run it for about a half hour for the rinse cycle.

Carefully reassemble the horn oiling and greasing each part as needed. For the slides I usually use anhydrous lanolin or Schilke slide grease (same thing I think).

The nice thing is that it can be a business expense and possibly tax deductable since there is no way I can clean this horn at home.

Just my $0.02.

Roger

That is a cool idea, Roger!

I attended an instrument "expo" last night and played several euphoniums. (Eastman, Jupiter, Accent, Yamaha) In the context of my question I asked the Yamaha rep (not a brass player) about the "bath" question. He said that his preferred method for cleaning them was to take the first valve & bottom out only, then flush the lead pipe with luke warm water and scrub it alone using a brush designed fopr the purpose. he had never heard of running water through the entire instrument.

hokkmike wrote:I attended an instrument "expo" last night and played several euphoniums. (Eastman, Jupiter, Accent, Yamaha) In the context of my question I asked the Yamaha rep (not a brass player) about the "bath" question. He said that his preferred method for cleaning them was to take the first valve & bottom out only, then flush the lead pipe with luke warm water and scrub it alone using a brush designed fopr the purpose. he had never heard of running water through the entire instrument.

That's really not a bad approach when it's done fairly frequently between regular professional chem-cleanings. I rarely run water through an entire horn unless I suspect there is an obstruction or am checking for a leak. On my personal horns... I remove the main tuning slide and attach a hose to the mouthpiece receiver and 'let 'er rip'... also depressing the valves to circulate water through the tuning circuits. 99% of the time, there's really no need to clean the entire bugle consisting of the large branches.

Same way with chem-cleaning. I'm set up to fully submerge sousaphones and large tubas but have found that circulating my 'witches-brew' through the valve section is just as effective and less prone to damage the exterior finish of the horn. Not having to heft the bulk weight of a tuba full of liquid is a big plus.

A slick set-up is simply an aquarium pump submerged in a five gallon bucket of cleaning solution with a hose attached to the receiver and another hose from the leg off the last valve back into the bucket.