Most recent improvement is implementation of triple polishing (previously it was double) to give the finish a real high sheen, be it under lacquer or silver-plating.
The picture shows the buffing room at factory. Very hard work holding tuba up to buff, so these workers get supplementary pay!
Note the extractors to remove the dirt, face masks to protect workers health and bright lights to see how they are proceeding.
Buffing is just the first stage, which is then followed by polishing by hand three times with increasingly fine cleaning compound.
After that they are chemically cleaned and quality inspected before lacquering, or plating.
The resulting good finish can be seen in this picture of new Bubbie 5 travel tuba
