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I am ready to have my big horn professionally cleaned and would like some opinions. There is a somewhat local repairman who does sonic cleaning instead of the traditional chem clean. Is this better? A trumpet playing friend of mine thought his valves felt worse ofter a sonic cleaning, although this was done by a different repairman. What do you repair gurus think?

harold wrote:The difference is that he is using an ultrasonic device - but probably using the same chem solutions.

I would confirm in fact that he is using a chem agent, but the results with the use of an ultrasonic should be superior.

The ultra sonic cleaning tanks I've seen all use plain 'ol water...not chemicals (I asked what it was).

I tried it out and found it to work really well.

Be sure to have someone that knows what they are doing clean your horn, especially if it's a true chem clean...there really is a lot that can go wrong with tubas and chemicals!

Ultrasonic cleaning utilizes chemistry that is common to the jewelery industry... light ammonia and chlorides. I think it might be very good to use on pistons and small parts but as far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on whether or not ultrasonic is very good at getting the gunk from inside slides. As far as cleaning a tuba goes.... I don't know of anyone who has an ultrasonic tank big enough to submerge a tuba.

I think ultrasonic cleaning is great for trumpets, flutes, etc., but I'm not convinced that it is the best way to clean a tuba. I'm still using ol' fashioned elbow grease in the cleaning process and plenty of it, as well as different chemical solutions appropriate to what I'm cleaning, with frequent washing-out, rinsing and inspections throughout the process. There is no easy way to clean a tuba, and an ultrasonic unit large-enough to accomodate an entire tuba body would cost well over $10,000.00. Just like my playing equipment, I'm not about to shell out big bucks for something unless I'm sure it will do the job. I recently serviced a tuba that had reportedly been ultrasonically cleaned. It looked pretty good, but the valves worked better after some minor repairs and a multi-stage chemical cleaning. I just don't think ultrasonic cleaning is the cure-all answer.

I believe there is a shop in Chicago called the "Brass Bow" which has (I understand) a good reputation and offers sonic cleaning. I know they can accomodate a euph., but I'm not sure about a tuba. I think they have a website ... you could google them ... good luck!

There is a small, one-man instrument repair shop in Waterloo, Iowa (of all places) that has a tuba sized ultrasonic tank. It's called Grady Instrument Service. He specializes in trombones...built a few for the CSO section, among others.

Very Reasonable price

Those in midwest should look him up.

trop2000 wrote:I believe there is a shop in Chicago called the "Brass Bow" which has (I understand) a good reputation and offers sonic cleaning. I know they can accomodate a euph., but I'm not sure about a tuba.

Yes, they can accommodate a tuba, and they quote prices for ultrasonic cleaning of different size tubas. They're located in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.