Tuba suddenly playing flat.

[TubArild]

What can cause a tuba to suddenly start playing flat 20-40 cents when using some valve combinations. for me it is especially the 2nd and 3rd valve. I use the same mouthpiece that I have used for many years. I have never har that problem before.

[bloke]

a wide-open question with potentially infinite wrong answers.
Here is just one wrong answer:
The fourth partial 2-3 combination - just down from the tuning note (as with so many tubas) – has always been pretty darn flat, but you just are now noticing it, because you’ve naturally been lipping it in tune.

[Mary Ann]

This could be construed as an insulting question but is not meant that way. Is there any chance that two slides got switched, perhaps by someone mischievous who thought it would be funny? Most tubas you can't do that but I don't know what you've got. Or someone pulled them way out and you never mess with them so it never occurred to you?

[humBell]

With better/more air support can you get it back towards how it used to sound?

Likewise, what would the effect on the sound be if a pinhole leaked developed because a solder joint was strained?

Or i myself am always but surprised on how some moisture in the tubes affects the sound, both the clarity and the initial pitch it settles on, and how a little bit more air sometimes drives it back towards how it sounds without that moisture.

[Mark]

Does someone else playing your tuba have the same problem?

[bone-a-phone]

Possibly a new dent, or junk in the pipes or possibly a leak? Maybe a bath combined with a water leak test in the affected area...

I have the opposite problem - certain areas of the range where I play way sharp. But I know the reason for that - trombone chops.

[matt g]

What can cause a tuba to suddenly start playing flat 20-40 cents when using some valve combinations. for me it is especially the 2nd and 3rd valve. I use the same mouthpiece that I have used for many years. I have never har that problem before.

Question, as it’s not really clear from this post:

Were the 2-3 combinations in tune prior, and now they are all wacky…

…or…

…is the tuba in tune until the 2-3 combinations and then, all-of-a-sudden, it’s flat?

[bort2.0]

Check to make sure there's not a water key that got knocked out of whack.

[TubArild]

The 23 combination ab in my tuba has always been flat what I now have problems with is 2nd valve alone b is flat 23 eb is flat and this cobinations was not difficult for me to get in tune before. It is not posible to change tubes and I am the only one with accsess to my tuba. Can a small leak cause the tuba to play flat?

[iiipopes]

[jtm]

This could be construed as an insulting question but is not meant that way. Is there any chance that two slides got switched, perhaps by someone mischievous who thought it would be funny? Most tubas you can't do that but I don't know what you've got. Or someone pulled them way out and you never mess with them so it never occurred to you?

I bought a tuba that was this way. Slides for 1st and 3rd (I think) had been swapped, and the 3rd valve slide was longer, so it stuck out farther than 1st needed to be. The seller had complained a little about tuning, but I swapped the slides back and the tuba was very well behaved.

[UncleBeer]

Check for leaky water cork, and check for degraded valve bumpers which may have ruined porting. Oh, and check for stuff inside the horn.

[the elephant]

…

[Nworbekim]

i bought a 186 a few months ago and i was disappointed with it at first. it was stuffy and the notes in the middle of the staff were quite flat... i had it checked by a repair shop and they found things inside it... after they were removed it plays as i thought it should.

[Ace]

This could be construed as an insulting question but is not meant that way. Is there any chance that two slides got switched, perhaps by someone mischievous who thought it would be funny? Most tubas you can't do that but I don't know what you've got. Or someone pulled them way out and you never mess with them so it never occurred to you?

Mary Ann, I think you are on to something. Reversing slides could be a possibility. Ha. I know, because I have done that in performance venue. I was playing horn 1 in a light opera, "The Merry Widow". During a long rest of several hundred bars I emptied my slides to drain water. On the Bb side of the double horn, I inadvertently reversed the 1 and 3 slides. Surprise, surprise when I made my next entrance. Talk about a rude entrance, WOW.

Ace

[Three Valves]

I was playing my tuba crappily this afternoon.

Discovered hidden water accumulation.

Played less crappily.

[bloke]

Mine was playing crappily recently, and I realized that the operator of it was playing crappily.
I didn’t realize it particularly suddenly, though.

[Mary Ann]

This could be construed as an insulting question but is not meant that way. Is there any chance that two slides got switched, perhaps by someone mischievous who thought it would be funny? Most tubas you can't do that but I don't know what you've got. Or someone pulled them way out and you never mess with them so it never occurred to you?

Mary Ann, I think you are on to something. Reversing slides could be a possibility. Ha. I know, because I have done that in performance venue. I was playing horn 1 in a light opera, "The Merry Widow". During a long rest of several hundred bars I emptied my slides to drain water. On the Bb side of the double horn, I inadvertently reversed the 1 and 3 slides. Surprise, surprise when I made my next entrance. Talk about a rude entrance, WOW.

Ace

Yes I've seen posts about people who bought horns (real horns, not just wind instruments that people like to call horns) -- really, really cheaply because "they played funny" and it was only switched slides. They are all the same size on a horn and until someone has the experience to realize (ha, like you did!) what is wrong, they will think there is something really off about the instrument. My own experience was I had a high F horn in to be cleaned, at a music store with a good reputation, and it came back with one of the valves strung backwards. You can imagine the "conversation" that ensued when I saw it, and can also imagine the now years of business they have not gotten from me.
Even funnier is at this time of life, sometimes my brain does not keep up with which valves have to be down for a pitch that goes flying by in a rehearsal or concert, but my chops do know; during our park concert last night, I had two "really funny sounding" correct pitches with the wrong valves down. The horn does not like to resonate with the wrong valves down, but it can be made to play the pitch, lower down where the partials are not right next to each other. Higher up, ha, you know what happens!