Posted by Lee Stofer on March 04, 2004 at 08:19:43:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Thoughts on raw brass posted by Wade on March 02, 2004 at 20:01:28:
Wade,
I just remember seeing the tuba player of a certain celebrated orchestra with a taped-over hole in the bell of his Alex 163, and have had to form new leadpipes for unlacquered Alex tubas more than for any other tuba, due to the pipe wearing through on top. If your instrument is quite solid still, that is great. I've just seen a few raw brass tubas that were not. And I agreee with you, that no finish will stand up to complete lack of care, and any horn will last much longer with regular cleaning.
My personal preference is that I like to have a lacquered horn, and if I personally bought a horn (ie., Alex, or anything else) that was raw brass and I wanted to play it and keep it for my own, I'd feel that I was protecting it more in the long run by lightly buffing it and lacquering it than I was doing any damage to it by lightly buffing it. True, there are places you could send an instrument where it would come back looking wonderful, but would have lost a bit of metal in the process, and some of its sound quality. I would never want to do that. I have found that if you turn in a horn to an overhaul facility and specify to the people that you are not concerned about minor scratches, pits, etc. showing on the finished product, and ask them to please go lightly and preserve the metal thickness, my experience is that they will honor your wishes.
My general philosophy for the care of an instrument is maximum protection, minimum invasiveness into the metal. I have recently acquired a small F tuba that I plan to hang onto, where half of the lacquer is gone. I plan to simply hand-polish the areas where there is no lacquer, then de-grease and re-lacquer those areas, blending it into the old finish. It won't quite look new, but will be presentable and protected to the max.
To develop the nice, dark-brown patina I've seen on tubas in Germany seems to take time. Virtually all of the tubas in the Rudolf Meinl showroom are unlacquered, and the ones that are several years old have a wonderful dark brown cast to them. The cooler climate seems to help with corrosion issues. If you polished your tuba with Simichrome polish, Flitz, or Brasso, then wore cotton gloves to keep the fingerprints off until the tuba turns dark, then you would probably be able to get a completely uniform patina.
Lee Stofer