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I bought this horn about a year and a half ago. I am at least the third owner, since the guy I bought it from purchased it used. So I don’t know it’s history. I do know it’s been worked on. The first and third slides have been lengthened. I have a suspicion that it MIGHT be an “Econo overhaul”. The lacquer may be tinted. The horn looks darker “gold” color than the usual brass with clear lacquer. The cosmetic issue is primarily on the bell section. There are areas of discoloration that appear to be under the lacquer. I will try to post pictures although I’ve had bad luck with that. I have thought about stripping the lacquer on the bell section only, but am hesitant as I’ve never attempted something like this before. Also, there’s no guarantee that I can polish out the stains once I’m down to raw brass. Is this a good idea? What products and methods would I use?

With no further comment, I would advise leaving it be.

Wow! Bloke, that is an extremely brief response! Quite unlike your usual…

He’s right…

To fix stuff under lacquer, one would need to strip the whole bell in order to make it all uniform, and have the bell buffed and sprayed (maybe, again) by someone who knows what they’re doing.

If it looks good from 5 feet away, I’d just leave it, or, strip all the lacquer off and leave the tuba in raw brass to patina.

I had a Kanstul marching horn carcass here that I bought for the detachable bell. The lacquer was a bit darker than 'usual' but appeared factory. And while removing some of the braces, I couldn't mess up the lacquer no matter how hot I got the torch... I was amazed!

If you want someone to look at it, you could try https://beemanbrassworks.com/ for a consultation. They're on the east side of cleveland. The owner/operator is a tuba guy. I think that's where I'm going to go if I need something major professionally done.

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York-aholic wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 4:54 pm I had a Kanstul marching horn carcass here that I bought for the detachable bell. The lacquer was a bit darker than 'usual' but appeared factory. And while removing some of the braces, I couldn't mess up the lacquer no matter how hot I got the torch... I was amazed!

Yeah, I was wondering if anybody thought the lacquer looked factory. Usually when tubas get “econo overhauled” they buff the crap out of it enough to kind of blur the engraving. But my engraving looks factory sharp! If it is factory then something went wrong there, moisture under the lacquer or some such.