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LeMark wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2023 1:55 pm

York-aholic wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2023 1:49 pm Did you get to eat the tuba's in flight meal or at least drink it's beverage?

It was frontier.. No provided food or drink

In that case, it's a wonder that you or the tuba were able to board at all. In my experience, Frontier is lousy, and only Spirit is worse. Both are basically like if Greyhound had airplanes. So I guess that's fitting for a "just barely able to get a tuba to point B" service.

I had one of those bags once. I believe the intended use is to cover silver plated tubas to delay tarnish while in storage, or to provide sneeze-level protection for a tuba in a flight case.

when I talked to customer service last week when I was making plans, the CS guy was helpful and encouraging. Based on the conversation, I made the plan to fly to Phoenix to fetch the tuba. What the CS agent told me was backed up on the website

When I got to the desk today, the agents there were all saying that it wasn't allowed, and I would have to check the tuba as baggage, which of course without a case wasn't going to happen. When I showed them their own website, they pulled up a website on their computer with different language. WEIRD. They were totally sympathetic to my predicament, but they said the only we could do it was if the pilot approved it, and he wouldn't be in the city for another 2 hours. So I waited, and made a "just in case" cancellable reservation for a hertz rental car, because Avis, budget, and Enterprise were all sold out on a monday morning, so i got what I could.

Now when the pilot did arrive, he couldn't be nicer, totally couldn't understand why I would be turned away, and said right away "let's do this"

the flight attendants were there same way, saying they do this all the time and couldn't believe I was given such a hassle.

It was a tale of two companies, one seemed to do everything in their power to make things difficult, and the other one was a joy to deal with.

Oh yeah, the seats were rock hard

I guess everyone has their little quirks, mine is I think rotary tubas look naked without a leather wrap to rest your right hand on. I made one last night for the big guy. I also put the thumb ring back on that had been taken off by the previous owner.

OK... now that I've seen a front on picture:

me:
' only offering UN-informed possible suggestions, but - if your third and 6th partials are close enough to favor without having to move your main slide, and you would like to use your first slide to address most issues - you might consider doing what I did, which is too take the whole #1 slide assembly off of those two elbows, cut the elbows shorter, and then reinstall the #1 slide assembly - and with remarkably good alignment. At that point, the #1 slide would hopefully be short enough to play your second space C in tune, but still might offer you enough pull to do other things that you might want to do with the same slide...(??)

With my instrument, the first slide also would not originally go in far enough to play C in tune, so that's just what I did. Now, that C plays in tune all the way in, well.. with a couple of very tight-fitting O-rings next to the ferrules- so as not to make percussive noises.

That's a great suggestion. Shorten the brass elbows instead of the inner and outer tubing. I keep all of the length of the pull, but I still get an overall shorter slide.

I also found that the D below the staff might be the one sharp note, so I still have the 1st valve pull to fix that if for some reason I don't want to play it 3rd valve

In another note, I'm really loving the thermometer bulb 2nd valve slide. Wish they still made them like that

It's been a long time since I've seen an old Cerveny with a kranz!

In the early 1980's - when NEMC (New Jersey...a play on MENC) was selling a ton of Cerveny, they were still sold with a kranz - including this model.

Many of the post 2000 cerveny had them as well

Sure, plenty of new ones. I'm just thinking of the Soviet-era stuff, I don't recall seeing a lot of Kranz back then.

Nothing extra.
Is tuba.
You need more?
Already too much!

I didn't know the old ones ever had them

My Cerveny 1660 (Arion) from the late '70s/early '80s has a kranz

Lovely - congrats. How do you get B natural and E natural with 2+4 in-tune ??? Much lipping down, or some other trick ?? Can you pull the 4th slide on a Cerveny 601 ?? I think those two sharp notes plus avoiding the akward 23 to 24 shift are the best reason for a 5th valve ...

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 2:15 pm Sure, plenty of new ones. I'm just thinking of the Soviet-era stuff, I don't recall seeing a lot of Kranz back then.

Nothing extra.
Is tuba.
You need more?
Already too much!

My Soviet-era B&S has a kranz. There’s no engraving, like the similar age Mirafone and Scherzer have, but it’s nice enough. And there’s engraving on the rotor caps, too.

BramJ wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 3:21 pm My Cerveny 1660 (Arion) from the late '70s/early '80s has a kranz

If you ever want to sell that, let me know. I've been looking for a Pre 1990 Arion for a long time

marccromme wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 3:21 pm Lovely - congrats. How do you get B natural and E natural with 2+4 in-tune ??? Much lipping down, or some other trick ?? Can you pull the 4th slide on a Cerveny 601 ?? I think those two sharp notes plus avoiding the akward 23 to 24 shift are the best reason for a 5th valve ...

Not sure, I was as surprised as you. Pulled the 4th valve until C was in tune, and the B came right out too. Maybe I was subconsciously lipping down, but on my other cerveny 601 CC, that didn't work

I had a similar story when I flew United to pick up my Tuono. Everything went fine with security and CS until a POS gate agent gave me grief. Flight crew called and told him to let me and the tuba through and there was zero issue after.

Glad everything worked out! I’d love to see how you make those leather wraps. I’ve seen them all over but never figured out how they are made.

Sousaswag wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 4:50 pmGlad everything worked out! I’d love to see how you make those leather wraps. I’ve seen them all over but never figured out how they are made.

Now that there are really good epoxy lacquers
(and I'm old, and don't sweat as much...and never when I'm playing...'cause I no longer worry if I mess up)

I don't make those anymore...but making a PATTERN is the most challenging thing.
I made patterns for those by taping trips of paper together on the instrument, drawing a straight line at the top and bottom, drawing a horizontal line in it, cutting it off the instrument, trimming along those horizontal lines and then - voila - a pattern. I used gauze-backed Naugahyde, added one extra 3/4" for overlap, and the connection was (not laced up, but) Velcro.

The pattern (for the top and bottom to be 90 degrees to the bell) looked weird.

I use velcro as well

Measure around the tuba bell stack at the highest point you want the leather to be

Measure at the lowest point (usually 6 to 8 inches, but it's nice for it to be at a point where the bottom of the guard can "rest" on a brace, or you can notch the leather to make it more secure

You might have a measurement like. 28 on the top, 23 on the bottom, with 6 inches of height. It will look like a trapezoid

I like increasing the circumference measurements by two inches, and then securing that adhesive velcro that is 2 inches wide to the ends, of course so they secure to each other when they over lap

Pull tight when you secure it, stretching the leather. I don't use very thick leather, I have in the past and it's just not worth it.


And... That's about it?

I have a wrap from like 15(?) years ago made by a guy named Doug Olenik(sp?). I've use it on a number of different instruments, and actually have it on my Martin Eb Right now. This one has laces and grommets and is kind of like a girdle, except for the whole compression thing.

I can post a photo of it sometime, but the seems like good information for a different thread. I hate to see it get lost under something with a different post title. I tend to agree with Mark, that rotary tubas kind of look naked without them. Yes, they look naked without a girdle lol