Screw-On Bell to Fit Tuba in Small Car
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Re: Screw-On Bell to Fit Tuba in Small Car
I know someone who ordered a tuba from Miraphone with a detachable bell. So they will do it. Someone like Matt Walters or Dan Oberloh could do it; but I'll bet you don't want to pay what they would charge.
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tofu
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Re: Screw-On Bell to Fit Tuba in Small Car
A tuba in the trunk of a Miata - I’m not sure how you make that fit - of course it also is going to depend on the year or better the model year of the Miata - NA NB NC ND or if you have a PRT. With the NA of course you have the battery in the rear of the trunk. Fitting a horn in bag would be tough even with a detachable bell and a horn bell separated by itself is going to be vulnerable with the hard surfaces to slam into. It also is not a flat floor, but one with two short sides and a drop valley with the spare sticking out from under the rear shelf. The ride is going to be rough back there for the horn. These are sports cars with suspensions that don’t have as one of their goals a cushioned ride. 
Even in a bag I wouldn’t want a tuba back there. You’re also driving a car people just don’t see. It’s small and low to the ground. A lot of SUV’s and Pickups just can’t see where your rear end is and way too many Miata’s get their rear ends bashed in by these vehicles. A tuba in the trunk of a Miata smacked by say a Ford Explorer or F150 even at a speed of just 20 mph will become wall art and the Miata itself usually totaled.
Amongst my cars I do have one of the first Miatas - an NA I bought back when they first came out in 1989 as a 1990 model year. It’s my around town car in the summer and what I use for going to band rehearsal/concerts every week. In their gig bags my Miraphone 185 or my Besson New Standard BBb fit snuggly in the front seat with bottom bow on the floor and horn at a 45 degree angle resting against the front of the seat cushion - it’s a snug fit and I’m very careful closing the door. The horns ride well (nice & secure) and it’s a nice drive - (with the occasional wisecrack at stoplights about my date which is the same comment I get when I have my big dog in the car - he sits so tall in the seat his eyes are just above the windshield
- little kids in other cars can’t get enough of him when they spot him). With horn in case it is a tight fit to drop the manual shifter into reverse with the bag just above your hand, but 1-5 are easy to shift and of course the Miata manual is such a smooth gearbox - right up their with the slick manuals of BMW back in the 90’s.
My fat wide tuba’s however are a no go in the Miata - and of all the model years the NA is the second roomiest interior only exceeded by the NC (also know as the boat). But taller narrower tuba’s like F tuba’s should easily fit in the front passenger seat and be safe. Something like a euphonium in its case could fit atop the rear passenger shelf just behind the front seats with the top up. If you don’t have a passenger the front seat is the way to go. If you gotta bring the wife get a trunk rack and strap her on top that.
Attached is a photo with a rescue foster from last year (Carson the Chihuahua loved tuba playing - would sit on my shoulder when I practiced) in a child’s car seat - so a horn no wider than a kids car seat with sidearms should fit while in a gig bag.
Even in a bag I wouldn’t want a tuba back there. You’re also driving a car people just don’t see. It’s small and low to the ground. A lot of SUV’s and Pickups just can’t see where your rear end is and way too many Miata’s get their rear ends bashed in by these vehicles. A tuba in the trunk of a Miata smacked by say a Ford Explorer or F150 even at a speed of just 20 mph will become wall art and the Miata itself usually totaled.
Amongst my cars I do have one of the first Miatas - an NA I bought back when they first came out in 1989 as a 1990 model year. It’s my around town car in the summer and what I use for going to band rehearsal/concerts every week. In their gig bags my Miraphone 185 or my Besson New Standard BBb fit snuggly in the front seat with bottom bow on the floor and horn at a 45 degree angle resting against the front of the seat cushion - it’s a snug fit and I’m very careful closing the door. The horns ride well (nice & secure) and it’s a nice drive - (with the occasional wisecrack at stoplights about my date which is the same comment I get when I have my big dog in the car - he sits so tall in the seat his eyes are just above the windshield
- little kids in other cars can’t get enough of him when they spot him). With horn in case it is a tight fit to drop the manual shifter into reverse with the bag just above your hand, but 1-5 are easy to shift and of course the Miata manual is such a smooth gearbox - right up their with the slick manuals of BMW back in the 90’s. My fat wide tuba’s however are a no go in the Miata - and of all the model years the NA is the second roomiest interior only exceeded by the NC (also know as the boat). But taller narrower tuba’s like F tuba’s should easily fit in the front passenger seat and be safe. Something like a euphonium in its case could fit atop the rear passenger shelf just behind the front seats with the top up. If you don’t have a passenger the front seat is the way to go. If you gotta bring the wife get a trunk rack and strap her on top that.
Attached is a photo with a rescue foster from last year (Carson the Chihuahua loved tuba playing - would sit on my shoulder when I practiced) in a child’s car seat - so a horn no wider than a kids car seat with sidearms should fit while in a gig bag.
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bloke
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Re: Screw-On Bell to Fit Tuba in Small Car
I've moved over to hard cases - as I've discussed several times. I bought a handle - that was just like the original handle - for my Jakob Winter case that I'm using with my F tuba, and - just as with the original, LOL - it broke. My expensive bags are hanging overhead in the master bath on a rack I made for them outside my closet, because I just don't want to stick them in a box and put them in the attic, but they're a bit of trouble to get down. Yesterday - when I had to play with a cut down version of the Memphis Symphony for a concert at an elementary school, I just took the tuba by itself and laid it vertically in the front passenger seat with the bottom bow on the carpeted floor and I seat belted it in (no blanket / no nothing). It traveled fine. I walked out with one of the trumpet players who asked me where my bag is, and I told him all this. LOL. He was born 14 years after the F tuba was manufactured - which I bought new when approximately his age.
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Mary Ann
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Re: Screw-On Bell to Fit Tuba in Small Car
Handle on my violin case kept breaking too, and that weighs a whole lot less than a tuba case. I took some rope and made enough loops to have a handle, and that lasted way longer than the commercial ones.