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I'm really enjoying playing my new-to-me Piggy. It seems like the initial questions about intonation are resolving as I play the horn more...I seem to be
learning to lip most notes into tune and I am learning a few alternate fingerings for other notes. I love the tone and it is lighter than any other horns I've played, too.

However, my restless mind continues to wonder about tweaks for this horn. I think there is more than one leadpipe folks have used and I also wonder if anyone has had their leadpipe lifted off the bell. The only thing I'm contemplating doing at present is taking the water key off the side of the MTS and installing a Saturn water key on the bottom of that slide instead. That way I won't have to turn the horn on it's side to get rid of water. Seems like the stock water key is in an inconvenient place to me.

So I wonder if anyone who has or has had a Piggy has done anything to it to improve performance.
Thanks, guys,
royjohn

As mentioned before, I thought added mass to the valve caps did the horn wonders

I also Added a second valve kicker to mine, but in retrospect a main tuning slide rod would have been easier and more effective, depending on what your tuning needs are, and the current resting position of the MTS. My 2-4 combinations were sharp, but the MTS was out far enough already that a MTS kicker wouldn't help

I take it that others aren't like those that I've played, but it seems to me that a main tuning slide trigger to play second space c down to pitch would be helpful.

On my 601 (a horn identical to teh piggy through the valve section). I added a the MTS Rod to combat a flat C below the staff.

In this photo you can see part of the 2nd valve kicker and if course the weights I put on the caps

My Piggy had a rod on the 1st valve for easier manipulation, but I think a MTS trigger thing would've been more useful.

Add a fifth valve?

After adding a 5th Valve to my medium size cerveny, I wish I had done it to the piggy years ago. It would have given me the 2-3-5 option for the sharp 2-4 combo

HI Mark,
Thanks for your comments. I need to go thru a tuning chart for the horn and decide whether I actually need anything to correct the tuning. So far the horn is mostly in tune with my quartet at Church, but I'm sure I could develop a tuning chart to see exactly where everything is falling...

I can't see those valve cap weights too well in your picture...are they weighted valve caps that screw on instread of the regular ones? Or are they glued onto the regular valve caps or something? Could I accomplish the same thing with lead tape, at least for a trial period?
Thanks for your help,
royjohn
tuba newbie.

They are steel hex bars soldered onto the valve caps. I can't remember exactly how much they weigh, maybe as much as a half pound each. They are a good 3/4 inch thick.

Maybe overkill, maybe not. I never experimented to see if thinner caps produced similar effects

.

I buy Martin's Minibal links, but I guess I don't need those things.

I'd like to figure out ways to make my instruments weigh less (though - look at me - adding tuning-strategy gadgets to several of my instruments...and no one expects tubas to play in tune anyway... ).

.

LOL...
I won't make one of those (one-off) for only $100...but I wouldn't expect anyone to ask me to do so.