Vinyl wrapping

[ryschnei]

Does anyone here have experience with vinyl wrapping a brass instrument, like what people do with cars? It’d be kinda cool but I don’t know how the metals in the instrument will react or how it will alter the sound if at all, specifically having to use a heat gun to remove the bubbles in the vinyl. Any advice/experience welcome

(This is for aesthetic reasons, I’m not looking specifically to protect from wear and tear or anything like that)

[LargeTuba]

I know sometimes people spray colored lacquer on their tubas, sometimes even paint...

[matt g]

This came to mind:

https://ibb.co/XX1f5tm

[marccromme]

Why on earth would you vinyl wrap a tuba? ??

[the elephant]

Why on earth would you vinyl wrap a tuba? ??

Maybe he has a hot sponsorship deal with a lubricant company and needs to have their logo on his bell? (kidding…)

[bloke]

I would discourage pursuing that tack; it just isn't dignified.

...says the silly old man who owns THIS sousaphone:

[BopEuph]

If you want to try vinyl, have you thought about Plasti-Dip?

It's a spray-on vinyl, and when you're tired of it, it just peels off.

I've thought about this as a solution to discolored fiberglass sousas.

[ryschnei]

Why on earth would you vinyl wrap a tuba? ??

Because it'd look awesome.

[the elephant]

Well, by all means, go ahead, then. Just make sure to remember to share some photos of the final product.

[ryschnei]

Well, by all means, go ahead, then. Just make sure to remember to share some photos of the final product.

Will do!

[Three Valves]

I would discourage pursuing that tack; it just isn't dignified.

...says the silly old man who owns THIS sousaphone:

Bass boat sparkle sousaphone.

[Three Valves]

Well, by all means, go ahead, then. Just make sure to remember to share some photos of the final product.

Will do!

I’d like to see it too.

[BopEuph]

I really want to know if Plastidip is the way to go. I've used it to do a cheap refinish on an old dashboard, and it went much better than I could have hoped. Guys will plastidip their entire car (including lights for that "blackout" look), and it usually looks pretty great. When the vinyl wears, you just pull it off and refinish.

Hell, you could go with a crazy color and let people think there's a P-sousa!

[ryschnei]

So I actually did end up going the plasti-dip route and the results went a lot better than I expected.



For a first run I decided to do the bell; my thinking was that a large flat surface would be easiest to start.



I wasn't sure how the stuff would come off if applied inconsistently to other surfaces (if at all), so I had to be extra careful going around the corner here. In addition, it peels off the easiest when you have well-defined edges you're spraying over (like painter's tape), so be sure to have a defined area that you're applying it to instead of just haphazardly spraying wherever it looks cool. Addendum: because of this, I don't know how well the plasti-dip would work on non-smooth surfaces or small spaces, which is why I stopped at the lead pipe.



As you can see in the first pic, I took all the precautions I reasonably could to make sure that it didn't end up anywhere it was supposed to. Since I could only get the trash bag around the horn without the tubing in, I had to remove those and tape them shut as well.



After the first coating. I stood back, took this picture, had the moment of "holy god I just spray painted my $7000 instrument," and had to spend several minutes convincing myself that this was going to come off.



After the fourth? coating.



And this is what it looks like all dried up. Not perfect, but for a first attempt, I'll give myself a high five.



No bleeding over or dripping into the inside of the bell, which is pretty cool.



Not really noticeable from a distance, but the logo is still definitely visible. Also note the drip -- plasti-dip is only meant to be applied to small, even surfaces, and when spraying this on a large curved surface, some smearing is going to inevitable imo.



Comes off very easily. Getting some of the remnants off by hand around the lip of the bell was a bit of a pain, but if worse came to worst I could have just used some warm water and soap.

All around a very cool experiment and I'm glad it worked. I'm interested to see how this stays on long-term as it goes through temp and humidity changes (I only had it on for about a week as a proof of concept), but it /does/ work.

Some notes and tips for future attempts:

- Definitely do this outside. I was constrained by space so I was kind of forced to do it in my practice space, which meant I couldn't spend too long in there or I started inhaling some of the fumes (thankfully the space is fairly large so it wasn't that big of a deal but still).

- Prepare for this to take all day. The can recommends four coatings with an hour to dry between each one, but if I were to do this again, I would make it five or six. It looks fine from a distance but once you get close you can see some imperfections that I think could be covered up with another few coatings.

- Plasti-dip is not meant for surfaces this large, so depending on how much you want to coat at once, be prepared to buy several cans.

- As mentioned before, plasti-dip isn't really meant for surfaces this large or curved, and you will get drip. This could be mitigated by spot-spraying and waiting for it to dry each time but unfortunately I don't have that kind of time or patience.

[LargeTuba]

Nice job!

I hope the plastidip plays well with the silver.

[BopEuph]

This is so cool! Thanks for the follow-up! Just one thing:

- As mentioned before, plasti-dip isn't really meant for surfaces this large or curved, and you will get drip. This could be mitigated by spot-spraying and waiting for it to dry each time but unfortunately I don't have that kind of time or patience.

It's very popular on modern sports cars, so it is possible to evenly cover large surfaces; however, I doubt it's easy to do with small spray cans, and the silver plating might be harder to adhere to than a car's clearcoat.

But this is very cool, and is a kind of proof-of-concept. I think this would be great for sousaphones, especially.

[Tubaryan12]

Coincidentally, I was thinking of this this morning. I work for a company where I can get free vinyl wrap. I ordered a sample of matte black to cover a fiber drum that I use as a stool while playing.

One of my coworkers asked if anyone has vinyl wrapped a tuba? We hit google and this thread popped up. Since we are in R&D, experiments must be run. I'll try a section on my horn and report back in.

[MN_TimTuba]

Why on earth would you vinyl wrap a tuba? ??

It keeps longer in the fridge.
Tim

[the elephant]

Don't forget to burp it before you put it away. (Old Tupperware ref.)

[dp]