DIY plating

[EMC]

Hey everyone, I have a raw brass horn and because I do gold and silver plating for other things, mouthpieces, keys, parts of machinery, ect. Ect. I've been l thinking it might be nice to do the same to the bell of my horn, primarily for cosmetic reason because it has plenty of red rot and waterish type stains on the bell, I assume the previous owner left moisture on it or something, and its really a shame since the rest of the horn is nearly flawless, anyway I was looking for an opinion on this for someone who perhaps has done this before in regards to how it might have some negative effect on sound if any effect at all, sorry for the long post any feedback is always appreciated.

[EMC]

Yeah I know preparing is absolutely important! Haha as I said I do this pretty regularly, but I'm worried about it affecting tone quality, oh and I'm not sure what some of the marks could be, obviously some of it is patina but it also has what literally look like water stains, and black marks and they don't go away with any sort of polish, which is why I wanted to do something to, I guess in this case, cover up all these marks. But thanks I'll do some more research and who knows Maybe Ill be able to find some good info

[royjohn]

IDK what kind of black marks, etc. you have on the horn, but anything but red rot should come out of decent brass. You might have to use tripoli or even something coarser, like bobbing compound, or even a fine emery paper or steel wool or similar. You do need to be careful if the brass is thin, but I don't see why surface marks will not come out. IDK what you are polishing with, but it is possible that just rouge or brass polish is just not coarse enough to take out the stains or whatever that you have in a reasonable amount of time.

Once you have prepped properly . . .all dents and waves out, brass gleaming and cleaned of wax and grease, fingerprints, etc., you can go over it with acetone or some other cleaner (alcohol?) and plate. You say you do keys, etc., but I am not clear whether you are pen plating or immersion plating. The problem with tubas is how large they are. You need a heck of a lot of plating solution and a big container and probably a large rectifier.

I have known people to spot plate a whole trumpet with a plating pen, but this is much smaller than a tuba and even then, unless you go over and over the instrument, you will have a rather thin layer of plate, which is likely to wear off, particularly at contact points.

Your best bet might be to do the buffing yourself and then send the horn to be plated by someone who does this, but, given the amount of silver used, it will still not be cheap. I'm sure Anderson Plating could give you a price for it and they are about the best.

As far as silver plate affecting the sound, this has been debated over and over, but plating is about 0.001" to 0.0015" thick, which is a lot thinner than lacquer and I don't think anyone has ever proven that it has any noticeable effect on the sound.

Might be better to prep the thing perfectly and then leave it in raw brass. There are some polishes you could use which contain some protective wax that would keep the finish from tarnishing for a while. Or just live with some patina . . .

[Dan Schultz]

Red rot is a condition where the zinc has leached out of the brass leaving porous copper... actually little holes all the way through. This normally found in leadpipes and tuning slide crooks where moisture tends to be present.

[EMC]

Hey Guys thanks for the feedback and royjohn I'm not sure exactly what those marks are, but to let you know its a 1974-75 Alexander CC so it's not exactly a new horn, I use the maas metal polish and it works fantastic but I suppose it's not coarse enough to get rid of everything, from what I've read Alex's have fairly thin brass so I don't want to use anything to abrasive. As far as plating process I do use electrolysis but as you said I'll need a huge tank and probably gallons of solutions, so right now this is just an idea but still I appreciate all the advice.

[EMC]

Red rot is a condition where the zinc has leached out of brass leaving porous copper... actually little holes all the way through. This normally found in and tuning slide crooks where moisture tends to be present.

Oh and TubaTinker, it does have some red rot spots in the lower slides and tubing, is there anything worth doing to "seal" these spots as ive heard some people use car wax or silicone glazing?