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Hey Tubenetters!

I was just cleaning my silver plated 1291 and i was realizing how hard it is to keep clean. Just wondering what you people with silver horns do to polish, clean, etc. it?

My suggestion is just to keep it clean once you've cleaned it. All it takes is a rag kept with your tuba, and you can polish it whilst waiting for band to start or during a break in your own practice, etc. (no chemicals needed, just breathe on the dirty spot and then rub with the rag.)


Simon McCauley

My silver euph is still rather new so I may be a little anal about keeping it clean:

I keep a clean microfiber cloth with me at all times, great for wiping moisture drips, hand prints, ... A bag of microfiber cloths are pretty cheap at any automotive store.

Once a week or so I'll take the Bach silver polish cloth out of its ziplock bag and give the horn a perfect shine.

When the time comes for it's first bath I plan on using 3M Tarni-Shield.

I play euphonium and get body oils on the bell and down the main part of the bell tubing becase of the way I rest my forearm on the horn when not playing . I too keep a very soft cotton cloth with me and am constantly wiping it down. But just wiping it down is not enough. It still needs to be clean really good once a week. The body oils need to be wash off with a mild cleaner.

Since I don't want to take it apart and put it in the bathtub every week to keep it really clean here is what I do :


- Once a week fill the kitchen sink up about 1/5 full and put some plain dish detergent in it. I use the Foodlion brand that has no hand moisturisers or grease cutters . You want to use something very mild. It will cut the crud off just fine.

- Then I carefully lay the horn on the counter with a towel underneath it. Then I use a clean washcloth and wet it the soapy water and just wipe it down. Avoid getting the water on the spitvalve pads or inside the valves or down the bell.

If you do get the soapy water in those areas you will have to take everything apart and rinse it in the bathtub.

- Now wring the soapy water out of the wash cloth and go back over the horn with clean water ( no soap ). Get all the soap off the finish . Don't leave any residue at all. I go over it several times with the clean water just to be sure.

- Wipe it down with a cloth soft cloth .The microfiber cloth mention in a previous reply is an excellent thing to use. It shold be very clean and shiny now. If you want to you can polish it as mentioned before in the other replys to this post. Now it will be nice and CLEAN!!

I hope this helps you.

I use Hagerty's Silver Polish. How do you apply this on a tuba/euphonium and how often should i be using it?

I just got turned on to 3M TarniShield. NO abrasives (So they claim)

phoenix wrote:I use Hagerty's Silver Polish. How do you apply this on a tuba/euphonium and how often should i be using it?

I use Hagerty's and am very very satisfied with the results. I usually Assmbe the horn and make sure the slides are all the way in.... and then I carefully spray around the valves and then on to the rest of the horn. I let it dry and then take off the slides to get into all the little creavices. I find that once every 6 months or so works well....and in between i just wipe the horn off with a soft cottom cloth to remove any smudges or marks. I know my way seems time comsuming, but to do it twice a year i think it worth it to keep my horn shinny and new looking.

and then I carefully spray around the valves and then on to the rest of the horn.

Does haggerty's come in a spray bottle???

it comes in an Aerosol can.

TUBACHRIS85 wrote:Since the topic is cleaning, you would use the same polishes metioned for sousaphones?

Yes*. A horn is a horn, and is cleaned/polished the same. Tuba, sousaphione, trombone, or trumpet. It's still brass, probably covered with laquer or silver.

If the are silver, don't use brasso. EVER!. It's too abrassive, and will remover the silver.
If it's laquer, don't use brasso. EVER! It'll scratch the and remover the laquer.

Brasso is only for raw brass.

At college we tended to only polish the bells. That's all anyone really notices.

But it takes time. Best bet is take it home the night before a game, so you have time to work on it. We did our horns Friday after practice if it was an early game, or around lunch if it was a late game. The whole line, about 24 of us. We'd rotate who bought polish. But just the bells would take a tub ever 2/3 weeks, depending on weather. To do the whole horn, would probably take 1 tubs a week for the line(once you got all the tarnish off. The first time would take much more)

These were old satin finished horns (except the bell front). The new horns are all polished. I suspect they are being cleaned better, completely. At lest for a few years.


*Fiberglass horns don't count in this. Thyere ain't much you cna do with them.

TUBACHRIS85 wrote:Since the topic is clening, you would use the same polishes metioned for sousaphones?

Not just for sousaphones, but silver instruments in general --

I rarely use polish anymore.

(blasphemy! )

Most often, I just wipe it down with Windex and a clean cloth. If there's no Windex nearby, I'd breathe on it to fog it up, or just spit, or even steam from an iron (if we've got some set out for pressing uniforms).

The important part is to get rid of the fingerprints & dirt. Skin oils contribute to tarnish faster than anything.

When I do polish, it's pretty much any stuff that I can get from the store that's designed for silver -- Wright's, Twinkle, etc.

But, what works best is to keep it in a case and keep it clean. Polish isn't necessary for simple cleaning.