hey, I've been wondering about something while cleaning, oiling, and greasing my tuba.
I've used Slide-O-Mix for when I play bass trombone in my school's jazz ensemble, and it makes the slide super-slick, and I was wondering if it'd be a good or bad idea to try using Slide-O-Mix on a tuba's tuning slides to increase the speed of slide-pulls...any thoughts would be helpful!
Practice does not make Perfect, Practice makes Permanent.
I used to use Trombotine and it worked ok most of the time, but now I use something I bought for trombone slides and found out it sucks there- the green bottle of Spacefiller
The master repair guys on here will rake me over the coals for this, but I had my first valve slide sanded down with EXTREMELY fine sandpaper and used slide-o-mix as the lubricant on my old horn. between the D, BBb and FF, there was a difference of about three inches that needed to be adjusted between the notes. This made it much easier to get those in tune, and especially easy to adjust depending on where I sat in the chord. Of course, I played with my left hand on that slide all the time, and it made it tricky to adjust the other slides on occasion. But, that also played to the tendencies of my old 2145, so it depends on how much risk you want to take. Also, it moved almost like a trombone slide, but was long enough that the vacuum created was enough to keep it from falling out. Just a personal fix, but it may help you out.
"Statistical analysis suggests that I am probably in tune with someone."
It certainly would do no harm to try the slide-o-mix. If you don't like it just wash it off and try something else. (I think something like 3-in-1 oil or sewing machine oil might be better and last longer, but that's just my opinion.) If the slide tends to fall out you can always tie it in with some string. I saw a Monette trumpet that came from the factory with strings attached to keep the slides from falling out. You can easily adjust the string to stop the slide pull at just the right position without the mechanical clank that you get from a threaded-rod slide stop.
a tuning slide, even one intended to be used constantly as you play, is not a trombone slide and it's not built like one. a trombone lubricant may work OK (I think perhaps just the small silicone bottle from SoM would be pretty good) but you'll be even happier with a lubricant that's intended for your application. Try Hetman #4, #5, or #6. It'll be much smoother and last much longer.
