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bloke wrote: Mon May 04, 2026 7:27 am You might have a scale build up starting to occur.

This is another uninformed guess, but sawing on and thumping on the mouth pipe to install that device may have shaken loose some scale in the mouth pipe tube which migrated down into the rotors.

If you tag me, you're going to get some sort of rhetoric, whether it's useful or not.

First, if I tag you, I expect a response....should you choose to do so.

Yeah the horn was ultra-sonically cleaned last year, but sure there very well could be some deposits that shook loose. I've bathed piston horns many times, but never a rotary horn. I wouldn't mind trying this myself.

There are some drawbacks with acid cleaning vs. ultrasonic cleaning, but a couple of advantages are that it doesn't cost $20,000 for the equipment another advantage is that acid cleaning dissolves scale rather than busts it loose, and a final advantage is that when there are red rot places, acid cleaning doesn't hurt those whereas ultrasonic cleaning can bust those holes clean through.

I guess it's okay to flood your tuba with water, but putting detergent in there won't dissolve any scale, because the detergent and the scale are both alkaline.

I jet very hot water through my two rotary tubas and out the main tuning slide with the tuning slide removed. I wiggle the valves a whole bunch while doing it. That knocks out slime, but not scale. I try to prevent scale by using a ridiculous amount of cheap oil every time I play.

I've not had as much of a chance to play the Rudy lately as I would like to. That being said, I HAVE played around with the AGR to see what I like. It's definitely more of a feel thing. For me, Dave Werden's advice of "2 rotations out from all the way in" seems the right choice for me. I tried WAAAAY out and that made some notes harder to articulate and/or fuzzy.

I believe they're useful, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings nor discouraged sales.

The only thing about adding something like this on to an instrument is that sometimes (whether or not deservedly so) some things can function as red flags - another such thing being a main tuning slide trigger.

In my experience (and for my personal tastes) the mouthpiece shouldn't sit too far back from the choke point, and not very much of the reverse taper receiver should be exposed. Most tuba mouthpieces feature a thickness of metal on the back end (mostly for practical purposes - to define them as more dent resistant back there), whereas - if shaved down (in the style of Schilke) or even bored out to a sharp point - when they are bored out to a pretty sharp point and the exit bore of a mouthpiece is about .525", it seems like it works out pretty well for a mouthpiece to sit back a really short distance and then encounter a choke point (origin of the mouth pipe tube) that's roughly that same inner diameter (and maybe even regardless of the size and length of the tuba (though I seem to prefer F instruments' mouth pipe tubes originating at closer to only around .500").

terrible run-on sentence
(but I'm not going to fix it)

Finally, (here goes. LOL) being that I don't see much purpose for tuba mouth pipe tubes to start much larger than .525" - and I also don't see much need for a space between the end of the mouthpiece and the choke point being much more than 1/8 inch to 5/16 of an inch (and though I offer euro shank mouthpieces for sale) I don't see much use for euro shank tuba mouthpieces.

It takes some craftsmanship (not all that much), but (unless they are rotten) European rotary tuba mouthpiece receivers which are formed from the mouth pipe tube themselves can be re-tapered (once the cylindrical overpart is removed). For other instruments, regular receivers that accomplish what I described above are what I prefer. When I mouthpipe tube's small end is larger than what suits my tastes (measurements listed above), I can build some more taper and a smaller choke point into a (non-adjustable) receiver appliance itself.

This whole post response is a disaster - as far as wording is concerned, but - if I don't go fix some horns - Mrs bloke is going to beat me.

bloke wrote: Fri Jun 19, 2026 11:24 am
This whole post response is a disaster - as far as wording is concerned, but - if I don't go fix some horns - Mrs bloke is going to beat me.

Asking for Spike Jones....

Has she been beating you for the money, or just for fun?