...so this kid has been wearing my @$$ out (phone calls / texts...) about this tuba that I agreed to fix up for him
WHEN I HAVE TIME.
OK (dammit) I friggin' surrendered to his relentlessness, and (again, a detour from the important Holton BB345 projects) straightened out this Blessing (now-shuttered USA factory, with a nice German Bauerfeind valveset) knock-off of a King model 1140.
I hope they will now come and pay for it, and get it out of here...I emailed them these same two pics and a four-octave/five-B-flats demo video, and..."radio silence" in return.
(Often, the pestering ones become "the silent types" - when its time to pick up and
pay.
)
(This was an ugly duckling...and required probably eight (more?) hours of my time, which I had to "find" over three days...dents-dents-and-dents...busted braces-braces-and-braces...per the typical 1140-style tuba damage - a mess...oh yeah, and - OF COURSE - the nice cauliflowered bell flare).
Per routine bloke wizardry, I managed to straighten out the bell, bottom bow, and upper bow without taking any of them apart from each other...but (as design flaws define epic damage to these, when these tubas are tumped over - and the slides smush in against them) I decided that it was best to remove all three of the inner bows, to repair them. I'm sorta proud that the inner bows (soldered back together) define nice straight lines (from all perspectives) and that all of the original-or-replacement braces went back to the original spots...but that's what I do, so...
yeah...It's silver plated.
no...The slide alignment is only as good as was the factory alignment. I "fixed" it. I did not "blueprint" it.
(particularly the King 1140's, and knock-offs of such).
