Here's the transformation!
- Side-by-side comparison.jpg (194.91 KiB) Viewed 396 times
For those interested, here is the "recipe" that I went with, which was recommended to me by a repair/restoration specialist:
1. Thoroughly cleaned the tuba with a mild soap and water, then dried it off.
2. Wiped it down multiple times with Tarn-X to remove the tarnish, then rinsed it thoroughly.
3. Gently brushed it with a baking soda and water paste, then rinsed it thoroughly, and dried it off.
4. Lightly polished it with a tarnish-inhibiting polish (I used Hagerty's silver polish).
Also, I had previously suggested that the year the tuba was built was 1898, but Peggy Banks, at the National Music Museum, who is an expert on all things Conn, and has been researching serial numbers for decades, confirmed that it was built in 1899 (serial number 66235).
Finally, you'll notice that there are two tubes, that relate to the main tuning slide, that didn't polish up, as they are not silver plated. They are extension tubes that make the horn low pitch, and were perhaps added later.
