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I voted other..............................the one it came with. in my particular case. Approximately 1/2 lacquered brass(scratched and worn) and 1/2 raw brass(various shades of patina).

lacquered brass with some scuffs and dings. Adds character to the horn. Too nice looking and you're afraid to take it out of the case.

Lacquered brass. No muss. No fuss. Looks beautiful.

I realized too late, the amount of care silver plate requires!

I have to deal with 5 early 20th century silver sousies, and 3 silver concert horns! Oy!

Maybe I should make friends with tarnish!

In comparison, every silver plated tuba or euph that I ever played/tried felt better than lacquer, with regard to ease of response. Silver is really not that hard to maintain. (A rag with Tarnex, a quick wipe & buff with Hagerty's and then if its time for a "deep clean" a shower or a wet wipedown.) A little patina on the silver adds some character.

My next preference is raw brass and I usually wind up with a brushed finish (DIY) courtesy of SOS pads or 0000 steel wool and Brasso. I like my horns clean first off. Shiny is secondary. And cleaning the inside is actually more important than outward appearance.

I prefer Swedish to Finnish

Despite the inconveniences that come with it I prefer Polished silver with Raw/patina brass being a close second. Not a fan of Lacquer for whatever reason :p

I couldn't really imagine getting a new tuba, so for me it's about what they look like several decades later.

Last night a friend and fellow musician was regaling us with photos from his trip back to Nebraska. One of them featured the sousaphones of a college marching band, presumably the Corn Huskers, laying around outside the stadium as the band assembled. They were all silver plated, of course, with gold wash bells. That's my favorite finish. I'm kind of surprised you can get it any more.

As far as looks, I like the frosted silver, preferably with gold accents and the high gloss interior gold bell. As far as my preference in care, lacquer for the same reasons stated earlier.

I like the looks of frosted/satin silver, but it's a pain to take care of. Tarnish tends to stick in the pits in the finish and can come off on your hands and clothing if you don't wash it out afterward.

Lacquer is prone to lacquer bleeds, though they can be fixed. You don't see a lot of antique lacquer-finished instruments that still have their finish intact, no matter how carefully they're taken care of. You do see a lot of antique sliver horns where most of the finish, if not all, is still intact. I'll stick with silver.

That said, modern silver finishes are often not nearly as thick as the older ones. I wonder about their longevity compared to horns from the late 1800's and early 1900's.

I personally prefer lacquer, over gold brass for my own horns.

Looks great to my eyes and I like the easy clean of lacquer. Difficult to say the longevity of modern lacquer, as it is completely different material than used in the past. Modern lacquer is basically clear plastic coating.

Having said that, now I get to play lots of tubas, I do find that more often than not silver-plated play best

Donn wrote:Last night a friend and fellow musician was regaling us with photos from his trip back to Nebraska. One of them featured the sousaphones of a college marching band, presumably the Corn Huskers, laying around outside the stadium as the band assembled. They were all silver plated, of course, with gold wash bells. That's my favorite finish. I'm kind of surprised you can get it any more.

I was there when they were ordering those new horns from Conn. They're actually just lacquered brass in the bell, not gold wash. But that's been the look for their sousaphones for a long time! I actually am kind of surprised whenever I see an all silver souzie since I'm so used to playing the ones with the lacquered bell!

Give me lacquered brass every time. Looks good, no smell and sounds fine. I have several silver plated horns and I hear no difference between then and their lacquered brethren.

My Rudy is Nickel plated, and that is probably the strongest finish you can get.
From far away it looks like silver plated, but it tarnishes 100x slower.
Therefore this finish is virtually maintenance-free... at least I don't polish it.

(drawback: probably also the least repair-friendly finish, and IF tarnished, not easy to shine up by hand...)

Best finish??

It's hard to beat the 1812...

oedipoes wrote:My Rudy is Nickel plated, and that is probably the strongest finish you can get.
From far away it looks like silver plated, but it tarnishes 100x slower.
Therefore this finish is virtually maintenance-free... at least I don't polish it.

(drawback: probably also the least repair-friendly finish, and IF tarnished, not easy to shine up by hand...)

If it gets dented, does the finish crack and peel? Or is that just St. Pete tubas?

PS -- my favorite *look* is lacquered gold brass, with nickel silver slides.

Oh, and my least favorite is satin lacquer -- it reminds me of gold spray paint.

Silver looks nice, but I don't seek it out. I have never bought a brand new tuba, so when looking for used ones, you kind of get what you get. My Willson is silver and looks great. If it were lacquer, I wouldn't complain though. If nothing else, wear marks on lacquer horns get a nice patina and blend in a bit. On a silver horn, they really stick out. Apparently someone either moved, or added/removed something from my horn, so there's a quarter-sized spot on the outer branch that has no plating. Definitely a "meh" level of concern, but I know it's never going to look great.

bort wrote:If nothing else, wear marks on lacquer horns get a nice patina and blend in a bit.

I suppose if I've seen tubas where this happens, I'd naturally have been less likely to notice it. The exposed brass I see may in places come close to the lacquered color, but usually not next to the lacquered areas - since they're farther from the wear points, the exposed brass there is quite dark, accentuating the mottled look. These sharp, high contrast edges around the lacquer remnants is what I really detest about the look of lacquer. The color of some lacquers leaves a lot to be desired after a few decades, too, but we can hope the modern stuff will be more stable.

The other thing I see sometimes is a kind of pinhole spot that turns a pinkish red for a kind of measles look; Olds tubas particularly, maybe something about their lacquer chemistry. Don't recall seeing any silver plated tubas with red corrosion, first hand or in photos.

Donn wrote:The other thing I see sometimes is a kind of pinhole spot that turns a pinkish red for a kind of measles look; Olds tubas particularly, maybe something about their lacquer chemistry. Don't recall seeing any silver plated tubas with red corrosion, first hand or in photos.

Oh yeah... thats gross!