Cure lime deposits

[Tim Jackson]

Put this on your lead pipe!

[2nd tenor]

Over the decades I’ve fitted those to various mains water pipes but got very mixed results, sometimes they work remarkably well and sometimes they do nothing noticeable.

On cleaning out brass instruments I’ve always used and got benefit from snakes (brushes on the end of a flexible wire), brass savers work for me too. I suspect that there is still some lime deposit inside my instruments but the bulk of the unwanted ‘stuff’ is removed by the above cleaners. Heck, quite a lot of folk that I know have never and wouldn’t know how to wash and clean out the inside of their instrument.

[Mary Ann]

I plan to, eventually, take a snake to the removable parts of my CC tuba, because there is a bit of green goo that is visible. My horn has not been cleaned in a decade and has no green goo. I don't know where it comes from. (The tuba has not made me sick, so I'm assuming it is non-pathogenic green goo.) However, my choice is ultrasound cleaning because that, to me, appears to REALLY get the stuff out if done properly. Horn was ultrasounded about ten years ago. NStar was ultrasounded right after I got it, but the local person who did that is not doing it any more, so my current two are "as is." I don't see green goo in the Eb though.

[bloke]

I plan to, eventually, take a snake to the removable parts of my CC tuba, because there is a bit of green goo that is visible. My horn has not been cleaned in a decade and has no green goo. I don't know where it comes from. (The tuba has not made me sick, so I'm assuming it is non-pathogenic green goo.) However, my choice is ultrasound cleaning because that, to me, appears to REALLY get the stuff out if done properly. Horn was ultrasounded about ten years ago. NStar was ultrasounded right after I got it, but the local person who did that is not doing it any more, so my current two are "as is." I don't see green goo in the Eb though.

Goo isn't necessarily lime/scale. It may just be a substance known as disgusticological gootech.

Hard green stuff is - simply - white lime/scale died green by brass oxide.

[2nd tenor]

I plan to, eventually, take a snake to the removable parts of my CC tuba, because there is a bit of green goo that is visible. My horn has not been cleaned in a decade and has no green goo. I don't know where it comes from. (The tuba has not made me sick, so I'm assuming it is non-pathogenic green goo.) However, my choice is ultrasound cleaning because that, to me, appears to REALLY get the stuff out if done properly. Horn was ultrasounded about ten years ago. NStar was ultrasounded right after I got it, but the local person who did that is not doing it any more, so my current two are "as is." I don't see green goo in the Eb though.

Green stuff is the result of verdigris.

If you haven’t internally cleaned your tuba through for some time then I suggest that you see what’s possible for you, maybe with assistance, to do - perhaps you have a partner, friend or relative who can help with the heavier stuff.

At a low supply pressure (not off of the mains supply) I pump water though my tuba from the mouthpiece receiver end (hose pressed against it) and have all of the valves depressed (circulates the water). I later rotate the tuba to drain the water out of the bell end of the instrument. Remove the slides and use a snake brush on any and everything that you can, locally swill with water from the hose. That works for me and I’ve got a lot of muck out of instruments that way. YMMV.

[bloke]

It can simply be oxidation ("verdigris"), but often it's lime that is colored by oxidation.

Plastic brushes don't remove very much hard lime, in my experience. When I'm doing a quick "hillbilly" cleaning of student trumpet mouthpipes and removing hard lime from them, I use a rig which includes a gently bent BB gun rifle ramrod with a large bore shotgun brass brush screwed on to the end of it. I go into the back end of those trumpet mouthpipes (back and forth rigorously) to remove lime/scale. This is a shortcut on cheap student trumpets, as opposed to a chemical clean job. I've also used the same tool on trombone upper inside slide tubes, except it's another ramrod that is not bent. It's also a shortcut method.