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Against my better judgment, I am buying a silver tuba. Being neurotic I would let every hand or fingerprint annoy me. I plan on wearing white gloves with it, at all times. Question; what is the best way to clean the finish, when needed? I also thought of wearing hospital type gloves.

Thank you for any advice.

My mom plays hand-bells professionally (and worldwide). Since a child I was trained not to touch them without cotton gloves, of which there was always an abundance of in our house! I would think that wiping it down with very soft cotton or microfiber cloths would do the trick when you inevitably do get oils from your skin on the finish. I use a microfiber cloth on the silver bell of my sousaphone because the fingerprints drive me nuts but the rest of the horn I less picky about (it also has more of a satin silver body).

That's a good idea. Coincidently, I was a handbell choir director, at one time.

I have a silver King, got in it spring of 2011. Wiping the horn down with a soft cloth after use seems to keep it looking reasonably good. Letting finger prints set is a problem and if you stand the horn on the bell you might get some moisture leaking from the lead pipe or mouthpiece and that needs to be wiped up other wise you will get water spots.

Google "polishing silver" or "cleaning silver" at site:chisham.com and you will get a wealth of information that has been previously posted on the topic, and I have found comments there from some of the pro repair guys that post on this site very helpful.

I leave clean old t-shirt material in my case and wipe the horn down after use. I leave the horn in a case when I am not using it as I have gas heat at home and so far tarnish has not been an issue. The silver cleans up easily enough. I think once Bloke recommended a 50/50 mixture of Wrights Silver Cream and a gentle dishwashing soap when washing the exterior horn. Others have recommended other products that may be less abrasive and/or inhibit tarnish. I have read that Ammonia based window cleaners are bad for the underlying brass. A slightly damp soft cloth will take care cleaning some stuff and you may not need anything else.

I have had the horn professionally cleaned (ultrasonically) at the Instrument Doc in Charleston, SC earlier this year, and when I got it back from David, the shop manager it looked awesome, but the reason for the pro clean was just wanting to make sure the inside was clean and have him make sure it was mechanically in good shape. However, when I got the horn back he had gotten in those nooks and crannies that were hard to get to with my arthritic hands its appaence was as good as new.

If you are going to go with white gloves which you may discover you don't need, look for a pack of archive or museum gloves. You can find them in Amazon and other sites and they are cheap enough that if one gets ruined you'll have another handy. I suspect they will be gentler on your hands that the exam gloves though I suspect the exam gloves would give a better grip. I use them only when I wash my horn and only through getting it dry and back together.

YMMV but at this point in time I worry more about dinging the horn than how it looks after I've touched it with bare skin. Enjoy your new horn.

(edited one for typo)

I have a silver euphonium and have always used Tarni Shield from 3M. It's gentle and it prevents future tarnishing. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... 42262&rt=d" target="_blank
Available in retail stores as well as on Amazon.

My day gig is in an art museum and we get our cotton gloves from a mortuary supply company, as we can buy them by the dozen. They're all cotton and fit well. Some of the gloves from other sources are a cotton/poly blend and don't keep objects as clean as we like.
http://www.kelcosupply.com/service-item ... otton.html" target="_blank

Hope this helps.

I've been playing on frosted silver Kings for 30 years. I clean them with Wright's Silver polish once in a while and spray them with Windex(from a trombone water bottle) and wipe them off after jobs. It has stood the test of time with no weirdness to the silver. Sidenote, one of them was built in 1958 and the other was built in 2001. The plating on the old one is much more stout. There are NO wear spots while there are imperfections on the inside of the bell of the new one that don't even get touched. The newer one also turns down faster.FWIW,Ed

My plan:
Keep inside the bell clean and shiny
Keep the outside of the bell clean and shiny from the leadpipe up

The rest of the horn, anything goes.

The chemistry that tarnishes silver is sulphur... a by-product of a gas flame. My 48K sits on a stand right next to a vent-free fireplace that's in use during the Winter. It's easy to clean up a couple of times a year but would fare much better if I kept it under plastic or in a case.

Same with my King 1291 rotary (yeah... Ed has one of those, too!) These are the only two silver horns I have and I just don't worry all that much how they look.

If I really wanted to get serious about it... I'd get out my Hagertys terri-cloth gloves and wear them when I'm playing the horns around the house before taking them out in public. Hagertys makes an aerosol spray to spritz on the gloves and the gloves really work well for getting in between the tubes and cleaning up those hard to reach areas.

A word of caution about using Windex... I don't know about the current chemistry but Windex used to contain ammonia which has been known to cause 'brickly-ness' in brass. This was discovered many years ago during the manufacture of cartridges for the military.

TubaTinker wrote: A word of caution about using Windex... I don't know about the current chemistry but Windex used to contain ammonia which has been known to cause 'brickly-ness' in brass. This was discovered many years ago during the manufacture of cartridges for the military.

Same for Brasso. You can SMELL the ammonia in it. Might as well have a cat pee on your tuba. Brasso is too harsh for raw brass or silverplate, imo.

Silver plate looks best with a little age anyway - a little bit darker overall, a lot darker in the nooks and crannys. Out of the box it can be so bright that it's ambiguous - some bright metal for sure, but that slight oxidation makes it really look like silver. And it seems like it might be sort of embarrassing to play an instrument that looks like it just came out of the box. Just get that? sounding very nice on it.

Dude,

Don't worry about it. I have had a silver tuba for 18 years. They don't tarnish that fast and they clean up easily. Maybe once every 5 years you take a few hours and polish it but otherwise it still shines nicely. You will look silly wearing white gloves unless you are serving tea.