tuba cleaning

[qtyler50]

Does anyone else get green gunk in your tuba? Cleaned my first valve and leadpipe out today and found an alarming amount of green crap everywhere (inside valve caps, leadpipe, and the valve itself etc).

[Jose the tuba player]

not on mine, but when i was in High school i did the maintenance for all the brass instruments and the ones that had all the gunk inside were from people who ate and then played right after,(also they never cleaned their horns).

[wonderbread403]

My tuba gets gunk and it's something I accept (and I've been playing for 19 years). I've read posts in the past about this and there's no sure solution for preventing gunk. There have been varying claims of success with brushing teeth and washing mouths before playing. Some say it's about the brand of valve oil. But again, I say it's just part of the brass players life. Blowing warm air and spit into a tube will do that.