Question for the tuba techs

[cthuba]

What do you you all believe is a worthwhile modification to a tuba to improve the enjoyment of playing it and what do you believe is bull.

Strictly "playability" mods

Ex. Different valves
Lead Pipe being moved "off of the bell"
Amado waterkey etc...

[Three Valves]

I was just informed that desiring larger finger buttons on a sousaphone is not at all a desired or necessary.

[bloke]

operator upgrade

serious answer:

Throw overly-strong valve springs in the trash, and replace them with a set that is "balanced" to the valves' weight and also delivers the necessary amount of speed.

That ONE modification (assuming "not a bunch of really stupid stuff wrong with someone's instrument", and assuming "not a crap instrument") can get one's mind OFF the instrument and INTO the music...yes: really.

[bloke]

Things worthwhile:

Having slides aligned.
Venting appropriate valves.
MAW valves.

Things not worthwhile:

Cryogenic treatments (what happened to that?).
Shaving off water keys.
Stripping lacquer off.

[bloke]

Having slides aligned.

Absolutely perfectly aligned and fitting (NOT loose, just "absolutely perfectly fitting") slides allows for the lubrication of SLIDES with VALVE oil, which means that the ACTUAL cause of valves "gumming up" (ie. "slide concoctions mixing in with valve oil" - rather than all of the posted voodoo causes) will be ELIMINATED.

to be even more clear:
pairs of inside/outside tubes the fit just as well as valves fit into casings, and with the sets of TWO pairs of tubes being absolutely parallel and coplanar

[peterbas]

...

[bort2.0]

^ Paraphrasing a scene from Donnie Brasco

A Lincoln is like driving a waterbed

[KingTuba1241X]

Things worthwhile:

Having slides aligned.
Venting appropriate valves.
MAW valves.

Things not worthwhile:

Cryogenic treatments (what happened to that?).
Shaving off water keys.
Stripping lacquer off.

My King plays MUCH different without Lacquer than it did with the Eastlake Orange on it. Had 3-4 people say the same thing without asking. If it's the darker sound someone is looking for or after, then they should..otherwise leave it alone.

[KingTuba1241X]

operator upgrade

serious answer:

Throw overly-strong valve springs in the trash, and replace them with a set that is "balanced" to the valves' weight and also delivers the necessary amount of speed.

That ONE modification (assuming "not a bunch of really stupid stuff wrong with someone's instrument", and assuming "not a crap instrument") can get one's mind OFF the instrument and INTO the music...yes: really.

What if cars would be sold with much to hard or soft suspension, they could be hit with a class action lawsuit.
Oh wait, the american car manufactures sold cars for decades with a sloppy, boatlike suspension that could kill you going around a bent.

That could have been simply the Corinthian leather seats making the driver slide around unable to grip the wheel properly. Ask Ricardo Montalban about that

[peterbas]

...

[KingTuba1241X]

What if cars would be sold with much to hard or soft suspension, they could be hit with a class action lawsuit.
Oh wait, the american car manufactures sold cars for decades with a sloppy, boatlike suspension that could kill you going around a bent.

That could have been simply the Corinthian leather seats making the driver slide around unable to grip the wheel properly. Ask Ricardo Montalban about that

Don't get the reference, big hole in my knowledge of American tv culture.

https://youtu.be/uvyTTx33PPQ

[2nd tenor]

operator upgrade

serious answer:

Throw overly-strong valve springs in the trash, and replace them with a set that is "balanced" to the valves' weight and also delivers the necessary amount of speed.

That ONE modification (assuming "not a bunch of really stupid stuff wrong with someone's instrument", and assuming "not a crap instrument") can get one's mind OFF the instrument and INTO the music...yes: really.

Plus one.

I’m not a tech but aside from putting a brush through a Tuba (amazing the crude that accumulates over time) aligning the valves makes a real difference - it’s not that hard for an amateur to do either.

[peterbas]

...

[matt g]

@bloke snuck in that serious response after the fact.

I forgot my horns have pretty light springs, specifically the 2165. When laying on its back, the valves (MAW - already lighter than stock), barely sit in the open position. When held in playing position, this affords sufficient return speed but with ridiculously light action. I’d kinda rolled that modification into the valves overall.

[iiipopes]

On a Conn 3-valve sousaphone (a real Conn, not the fiberglass instrument that is really a King that is now labeled 36K, because the plumbing has different geometry), convert the upper loop of the 1st valve circuit to a moveable slide so you can adjust intonation on valve combinations, especially C & low F 1+3.

If the bell has overring, install a rim guard made from clear plastic tubing slit the length of the tubing.

On a rotary instrument, have your tech tailor the paddles to match your hand ergonomics.

Have the leadpipe & receiver adjusted (angled) for your embouchure, especially if you have an overbite.

[jonesbrass]

If the bell has overring, install a rim guard made from clear plastic tubing slit the length of the tubing.

This.

[Three Valves]

On a Conn 3-valve sousaphone (a real Conn, not the fiberglass instrument that is really a King that is now labeled 36K, because the plumbing has different geometry), convert the upper loop of the 1st valve circuit to a moveable slide so you can adjust intonation on valve combinations, especially C & low F 1+3.

If the bell has overring, install a rim guard made from clear plastic tubing slit the length of the tubing.

On a rotary instrument, have your tech tailor the paddles to match your hand ergonomics.

Have the leadpipe & receiver adjusted (angled) for your embouchure, especially if you have an overbite.

...and larger finger buttons??

[bloke]

oddly-encountered (??) sidebar CARS...!?!? addressed:

1960's soft-suspension American cars were also VERY wide and VERY long.
Pontiac actually advertised being "wide track".

Additionally, most USA speed limits didn't exceed 70.

They rarely rolled over.

My Dad bought one of these Pontiac sedans (neither a more-expensive Buick nor Lincoln nor Cadillac) new in 1964/5. (His brand new 1963 Chevrolet Impala had both given him air-conditioning and universal-joint problems, so he swore off Chevrolet for good, though Chevy addressed all of the '63 model's problems the next year.)
When we went on trips, I (age 9 - 10) could lay down and stretch out across the back seat, and sleep through any sort of road conditions, in that "wide track" Pontiac.
He bought an even longer/wider one (also Pontiac) a couple of years later. We could pack an incredible amount of stuff into the trunk of that car, and he would bring home old beds and dressers from my grandparents' homes.

Gasoline was c. 20¢ - 30¢ per gallon (adjusted for inflation: about $1.75/gal. today - as with our own recent pre-coup gasoline prices, which is about the same as the current €1,50...or - very roughly - about €1,60 for 4 liters). Expected highway fuel consumption was around 14 mpg (17 liters per 100 km).
The 2bbl carburetor engine was nearly 400 cu - plenty of power for a "family" car. We typically made a 375 mile trip (across the Ozark Mountains on very steep/curving two-lane roads, along with some very narrow "county" roads - to my Dad's parents' house in Kansas) in about 7-1/2 hours, which traditionally included a 6 A.M. 45-minutes-long sit-down breakfast stop on the Arkansas/Missouri border.

[bloke]

sidebar topic: ELKHART ERA standard-valves finger buttons:

I know of NO after-market fingerbuttons that either feature the required 6-40 S.A.E. threading NOR the required "riser" above the threads.

[Rick Denney]

What if cars would be sold with much to hard or soft suspension, they could be hit with a class action lawsuit.
Oh wait, the american car manufactures sold cars for decades with a sloppy, boatlike suspension that could kill you going around a bent.

Yeah, taking those soft-ride American cars around European off-camber and poorly designed highways at 200 KMH is a real hazard. (I'm not including the Autobahn system, which is reasonably well-designed, but populated by drivers whose training is almost sufficient to match their self-awareness, and which thus have high crash rates relative to American Interstate Highways).

Rick "who did not find the roads even in Switzerland to be quite as perfect as claimed, to say the least" Denney