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Hi

I am getting a used silver tuba. Price and performance cant be beat, less than 50% than a new one and it plays great. They are rare to see second hand. Its silver plated, but I really don't like silver plated tubas, I much prefer lacquer. I just don't like looking at a dirty silver all the time and then cleaning it. Finding a second hand lacquered one for the same price is nigh on impossible, so a lacquered one is not an option.

Can a silver tuba be 'lacquered' or have some sort of coating applied to make it less maintenance? Without affecting 'the sound"

Or do I just grin (or more correctly buzz) and bear it?

Actually silver plating is relatively easy to keep nice. You soak and lightly scub every 6 month or year in luke warm soap water, using a soft dish brush. Then rinse in warm water, dry with towel, and give it a few strokes with a silver cloth. That's it. No fluid silver polish, please, it makes a mess. And accept a bit of black tarnish in-between as a classy statement.

Maybe I should strip the silver off and sell the silver so I can hoard stuff haha

My response is more along the amateur hour line -

Most people have to pay extra for real silver plating on modern horns. Yes, you can strip it and have it laquered. It will cost you money to have it done right. Unless you have the facilities to do a very good lacquer job (and I'm not referring to a couple cans of Krylon) then you're best off making friends with hagerty silver polish - the aerosol or the pump spray kind. I use the pump-spray bottle. It comes out pink. It wipes off. Put a town down under it. Be prepared to have to get into fine spaces if you aren't being careful.

My silver instruments are a baritone and a euphonium. I don't spend a ton of time polishing them. They stay shiny. Well, as shiny as 100 year old silver plate gets when one is determined to keep the patina and one of them has a satin finish. Only if I've been doing a deep clean. My tubas both have gold lacquer. Well, mostly. Sorta mostly. My primary horn is incredibly scratched up; I play on a beat-up Jupiter BBb middle-school reject horn. . My Eb is 100 years old and shows it. Sooo...