Posted by Chuck(G) on November 06, 2003 at 18:26:58:
In Reply to: Re: Silver or laquer posted by Pat on November 06, 2003 at 18:05:31:
Are there any coated silver horns out there?
Silver tarnishing depends on a lot of things, the most important of which is the air quality where you live. Out here in the middle of nowhere, I might polish a silver horn every six months or so--mostly to get the slobber marks off of it, not to remove discolored areas. Even so, plain old glass cleaner works fine.
The big enemy of silver is sulfur, usually in the form of hydrogen sulfide. So if you live in a city that hosts oil refineries or a coal-burning power plant or otherwise has high air pollution, your instrument will tarnish pretty quickly unless you take preventitive measures, such as keeping the horn in its case with a few "tarnish chaser" strips.
Of course, if what you have is a nickel-plated instrument, such as a St. Pete, the iisue of tarnishing is somewhat different and is related more to the quality of the plating.