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I am in the process of buying a new Euphonium and was wondering if anyone could tell me the advantages and disadvantages to both a Lacquer finish and a Silver

Aaron

One is silver and one is lacquer....

This topic brings up a lot of controversy on this board. Some might assert that one sounds better than the other... Whatever, I don't buy it.

To me, the advantage of silver is that is can be cleaned in hot water without risk of the silver pealing (Lacquer will peal). However, lacquer is easier to keep clean (using a soft cloth).

Silver plated euphoniums are more in demand so they are probably easier to come across on the used market.

YMMV..

Silver will eventually need to be polished. If you have an instrument with a lot of tight clearances around the valves and between tubing, it can be quite a chore. However, this is usually not needed very often unless you keep the horn in an environment with a fair amount of sulfur pollution in the air; silver polishes with tarnish protection help a lot. Lacquer will only need to be wiped, but will most likely peel eventually.

Ancient horns plated in sliver may still have most of their silver plate after a century or more. Lacquered horns that age are mostly raw brass by now.

Some insist that lacquered horns have a darker tone than silver. Modern epoxy and other thin coatings cause less of a problem with deadened brilliance than older thick lacquer.

Why does silver NEED to be polished

Eventually it'll turn black, and will probably do it unevenly at first. If you don't mind playing a blackening horn, then go for it.

Edit: I've encountered several silver trombones in the past that seem to turn gray (or very dull silver) and never turn black. I have no idea what's different about them. Most were old Conn 88-H's.

Silver can be amazingly durable. The horn in my avatar was traded in to Lee Stofer and had turned solid black. He cleaned it up for me, and I haven't had to shine it in the 2 years I've owned it.

GC wrote:Ancient horns plated in sliver may still have most of their silver plate after a century or more.

My 1912 Eb still has a fair amount of silver plating left. I was pleasantly surprised!

FWIW - Most professional euphonium players have silver-plated instruments. I have no idea why.

I like the way silver tubas (and euphonia) look, and suspect that some people in the audience would come up with that opinion on the cheap as well, if you happened to ask them, even though none of them ever thought about it before. From the audience's point of view, I suspect that's as far as it goes. To 99 44/100ths of them, the euphonium sounds more or less like a euphonium. So play what you like, IMO.

(I guess if I'm going to say, "euphonia," I should also say, "tubae."