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Yes.

186

Oh lawd, not this topic :lol: Silver wins more auditions, change my mind. :geek: :lol:

No.

Rick "gold or titanium ONLY" Denney

You just couldn't resist, could you? :lol:

KingTuba1141X wrote:Oh lawd, not this topic :lol: Silver wins more auditions, change my mind. :geek: :lol:

But the laquer is purdy-er... :lol:

I prefer lacquer, but a tuba I think I want to buy only comes in silver. Oh the angst.

Rotary valves

Can we be more inclusive and include raw brass in this debate? :D

Oh, Joe. . . .
I will mention that I have been having the tubas I'm building silver-plated, although I was long a fan of lacquer.

Lacquer finishes are less maintenance for the owner/operator, but, for my purposes I've not found anyone that can do a baked-on
epoxy job that is clean-enough, and durable-enough to hold a candle to an Anderson silver plating job. The second reason I am silver
plating my horns is because of durability. I first noticed back in the 1990's that some old Conn tubas were going on 90 years old,
and still had an intact original leadpipe, unlike 25-year-old Mirafones and Hirsbrunners, which were also good horns. What was
the difference? Upon close inspection, I found that these old Conns were copper-flashed and silver-plated inside-and-out. I
started thinking about this, and realized that a brass leadpipe that is sealed inside-and-out in copper and silver is likely to not
have any problems for at least a couple of centuries. So, instead of the common modern practice of filling a tuba with water,
plugging the bell and all other holes, and silver plating outside only, Anderson is plating my horns the old-fashioned way, so that
when I disassemble and clean one, all you see is silver inside. I find that with a silver interior, it just doesn't corrode or get nasty
like a brass-interior instrument does. It makes cleaning the tuba so much easier. So, that's my $0.02.

Lee Stofer wrote: I started thinking about this, and realized that a brass leadpipe that is sealed inside-and-out in copper and silver is likely to not
have any problems for at least a couple of centuries. So, instead of the common modern practice of filling a tuba with water,
plugging the bell and all other holes, and silver plating outside only, Anderson is plating my horns the old-fashioned way, so that
when I disassemble and clean one, all you see is silver inside. I find that with a silver interior, it just doesn't corrode or get nasty
like a brass-interior instrument does. It makes cleaning the tuba so much easier. So, that's my $0.02.

Why did they stop doing it this way? Is that little bit of copper and silver that much more expensive?

C♭

Hi Lee,

Most of the Conn instruments - "back in the day" - that were scheduled to be silver plated were fabricated of "low brass", which (you know this...but not everyone does) is a funny-sounding-yet-correct-name of a specific brass alloy, which is 80:20 (copper:zinc).
The higher copper content allowed for better bonding of silver, and probably without a "copper strike" catalyst step in the procedure.

For others, 80:20 isn't super "red" colored, but has a more "golden" color to it that what are typically considered various "yellow" brass alloys.
In other words...it's not nearly as red as a Conn 88H trombone bell.

I've just never seen 80:20 dezinctify (ie. have never seen it "red rot"), which may (??) be why you've never encountered any originally-silver-plated Conn instruments' mouthpipes that are rotted. Even saxophones (which were originally silver plated at the Conn plant) were fabricated of "low" (80:20) brass. If anyone has ever seen old Conn 6M or 10M saxophone which had it factory silver buffed away and replaced with lacquer, try to remember the "golden" color of the metal. Likely, what you saw was (mostly) the color, and (OK...sure...somewhat) the color of the darkened-over-time lacquer.

Incidentally, most of Jp's (John Packer - made in China, an English company, with instruments offering remarkable fit and finish) upscale "3 series" instruments (for better or worse) are fabricated of 80:20 alloy "low" brass.

Lee Stofer wrote:Oh, Joe. . . .
I will mention that I have been having the tubas I'm building silver-plated, although I was long a fan of lacquer.

Lacquer finishes are less maintenance for the owner/operator, but, for my purposes I've not found anyone that can do a baked-on
epoxy job that is clean-enough, and durable-enough to hold a candle to an Anderson silver plating job. The second reason I am silver
plating my horns is because of durability. I first noticed back in the 1990's that some old Conn tubas were going on 90 years old,
and still had an intact original leadpipe, unlike 25-year-old Mirafones and Hirsbrunners, which were also good horns. What was
the difference? Upon close inspection, I found that these old Conns were copper-flashed and silver-plated inside-and-out. I
started thinking about this, and realized that a brass leadpipe that is sealed inside-and-out in copper and silver is likely to not
have any problems for at least a couple of centuries. So, instead of the common modern practice of filling a tuba with water,
plugging the bell and all other holes, and silver plating outside only, Anderson is plating my horns the old-fashioned way, so that
when I disassemble and clean one, all you see is silver inside. I find that with a silver interior, it just doesn't corrode or get nasty
like a brass-interior instrument does. It makes cleaning the tuba so much easier. So, that's my $0.02.

bloke wrote:C♭

B#

i love the looks of silver but i hate taking care of it... soooo.... LACQUER!

russiantuba wrote:Can we be more inclusive and include raw brass in this debate? :D

And what about the plastic horns?

There are gold people and there are silver people.

I dont wear gold jewelry, I dont own any GOLD or anyTHING gold. So Im a silver person.

But there are many happy gold people out there. I view it as mostly a wardrobe choice.

"Thats just like, my opinion man"

How about both?