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I used to set my tubas on the bell but these were older already been rolled bells. I did it with my euphoniums also.

Until I got a brand new tuba and am really trying not to set it on the bell. I have the Hercules stand and the K & M stand.

I rarely set them down on the bell. I have seen tubas get bumped so many times (sometimes knocked over). Nope! Not my horn. Not even at home. If I need a break during rehearsal, I'll gently set it on the bottom bow and hold it. If there's an extended break, I will take it to where my gig bag is and lay it on my bag.

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I make sure to set it down really hard, so it stays put. How else am I supposed to develop "tone wrinkles"?

It's absurdly inconvenient (and perhaps much riskier than setting a tuba on its bell) to put them in some sort of holding stand each time the instrument needs to be set aside, and laying them flat on the floor makes them invisible to those walking around the room trying to watch where they're going.

I don't mind setting them on clean wooden floors or rugs, and I keep my rims perfectly straight (undamaged) to greatly decrease the chance of tipping, and I also lean them against my chair.

The smaller the instrument - and/or the smaller the bell diameter - given the same approximate thickness of the sheet metal, the stronger the bell is going to be in relation to the weight of the instrument. (Engineers and such feel free to disagree and post big long mathematical formulas which I won't be able to understand.) The one with which I take particular care in setting it on its bell is the big rotary and thin-walled B- flat that I've recently acquired.

Like smoking. I can do it with cheap garage sale eb, but don't let me catch ya doin' it with kollije* performance arts major new fangled student loan horn?

Over all, my practice is complicated, definitely situation and horn dependent... Immediate and long term risk facto into it, as does convenience, sadly. If a sousaphone or helicon can rest on its bell, i'm tempted to do so in maximum spectacle situations.









*i spell that right?

PS i'll pick up some road flares to keep folk from stumbling over my tuba on its back... anyway, i'll also retire to the safety of the bad ideas thread...

Guilty. I stand both of them on the bell. I do stand right next to the tuba when I do that in an attempt to keep people away from it.

There’s no good way to do it. Stands are bulky and generally unnecessary in a rehearsal and concert setting. Laying it down makes it invisible. Sitting it on the bell makes damage possible.

In the two years I’ve been in my band, nothing has happened to anybody’s instrument. Generally the members are aware and we all have high quality stuff.

At home, I have carpet. Scratches don’t really happen. And they’re w-a-y out of the way.

I've scratched a flawless bell on crap (darkened backstage area) hanging low from the ceiling (when walking with the instrument and looking out-and-down, but not UP) but haven't ever creased or even scratched a bell due to setting an instrument on its bell.

re: the super-expensive school tubas...
Gov't entities (as - apparently - some adults are clumsy enough to smash their own instruments' bells against the floor - and it doesn't matter whether a district is rich or poor: WASTE = WASTE...Reflexive Axiom) should certainly only supply students with "just functional" equipment, if they supply them with any at all.
Also (as a taxpayer) I've grown weary of seeing military branches purchasing $1X,XXX instruments for sergeant-level musicians (who pass through run-of-the-mill military bases for three or four years, playing in base-bands) and requisition "doubles" of their privately-owned super-duper expensive instruments (rather than something that plays WELL ENOUGH to use outdoors).
(...but I digress...and SIMILAR $h!t occurs all throughout government at all levels...)

"We supply the tubas/double horns/baritone horns/baritone saxophones/bass clarinets, but not the trumpets/trombones/baritones/flutes/clarinets...

...so how is THAT really "fair", and - are those who are required to buy their own smaller things, required to buy $12,000 ones (as band directors - spending OPM - simply requisition THE most expensive stuff there is - even if there's better/less-expensive stuff out there) ?

It seems to me, that - now that we are in the age of "young scholars destroying stuff that costs like a pretty good used car with absolutely no consequences to the students nor their guardians", the stuff that schools buy should probably be inexpensive enough to throw in the trash...and I'm not referring to Taiwan stuff (which is only slightly less-expensive that other stuff - so: still too expensive), and (not to jab at a competing well-enough-made Chinese company, but...) some of the Chinese stuff is now marked up so as to cost roughly the same as German-made stuff.
Young scholars KNOCK OVER tubas/euphoniums - and/or use them for band room battles/wars, but (seriously...) they don't crease those (again: way nicer than they deserve, and way nicer than should be confiscated from private citizen taxpayers) instuments' bells via setting them down (unless at several MPH)...and ok...I suppose that's possible, but it's far MORE likely that they DROP them when setting them down, and could - just as likely - DROP them - or whack them against the stand itself - when setting them on one of those ugly/bulky yellow-and-black stands.

ok...I'm off the soapbox and off the tangent...
...and back to discussing "being so clumsy that bells are creased when setting instruments down"...

The purpose of non-playing stands is storage only.
Those which are played very regularly (or nearly immediately at gigs) sit on their bells.
I have a gig stand for my cimbasso, ONLY because there's just no damn way to prop it up nor lay it down reasonably safely.



bloke "I suppose I could rest them on their bottom bows - as an arc is stronger than an open end of a cone - but I'm just not that good at balancing stuff."

I've started putting them on my instruments.

Since there's no place for an air tag - and even though my instruments are somewhat close to "unique", I'm thinking that they become EVEN MORE identifiable (if stolen) EITHER with those initials OR with that slide missing.

Depends. If water is going to run down and back out the leadpipe, the answer is no. If there's not a concern of that on the bell - leaning against something - is fine. NEVER without a brace of some sort.

That's a good point, and another reason why I don't have any silver plated instruments - though I wasn't even aware that was one of them.

For the drips, at home, I just cover a portion of the bell with a towel if I don’t dump that water from the leadpipe before putting it down.

My neighbor made me some stands like BBC uses as he’s into woodworking. They’re the ones at shows that you shove the bell under to give the illusion of security. They’re great at home, but I still wouldn’t trust them if one were to fully knock a horn over.

I've installed these on my vehicles, to protect their fragile exterior sheet metal and plastic parts in heavy traffic:



When we arrive at home, we set our vehicles up on jack stands, in order to prevent the tires from subtly flattening on the bottoms...

NOOOOOO!!! Some day, some where, when you least expect it, it will get knocked over. Show me one Besson BBb comp tuba with the 17-inch bell that does not have the flat dent on the off side of the bottom bow, or evidence of it having been hammered out!

I have always heard that setting a tuba or euphonium with vertically positioned valves (top banger) on it's bell will allow dirt, grime and fluids, to make their way to the top (guide area/felts/top caps) of the valves when upside down. Briefly, at rehearsal likely not an issue. Longer term, unplayed, whatever, in that position, might be. When playing out, I do whatever seems most convenient and safe, the horn often strategically positioned on it's bell. Some horns are just more stable on their bells than others. I pretty much assume wayward legs and feet will stumble onto or knock it over given the chance, especially in a smaller venue.

There are some horns that can't be set on it's bell. My euph, a King 2280, has a center of gravity such that it just falls over if you set it down on the bell. My brass tech says nearly ever one of that model he has ever seen has a brace pushed in on the front from falling, mine included.

When I'm on stage in a rehearsal or performance, there are more than a few of those engagements whereby I'm using both the cimbasso and a tuba. I can't be dragging some big yellow and black thing out there that holds the tuba at a 45° angle. First, they would tell me to take it off the stage because it's ugly plus would take up way too much space, and secondly those things look to me like tip over devices - as if designed to be knocked over - with a tuba falling farther than if it was sitting on the bell. Also, I wouldn't be able to grab a tuba off of one of those quick enough to play it on the next piece and certainly not switching from cimbasso to tuba in the middle of a pops medley. The people next to me are the basses, and - although my tuba is expensive and particularly fragile, their basses are surely just as expensive -or, likely, twice as expensive - and even more fragile. (Basses don't dent; they just bust.) Those people are careful, and they are paying attention to their surroundings, so I feel alright. Even if I don't manage to get the tuba up in my lap before people walk past me during breaks, it's a whole bunch of people who are carrying $25,000 to $100,000 bowed stringed instruments, and they are also paying attention to where they're going.

I don't mean this as an insult at all, but I'm just being really practical here - due to a different corporate behavior and attitude:
When I might be rehearsing with a community band - and the rehearsal is over, I grab my instrument very quickly, immediately carry it to the side of the room, and put it in the hard case. Perhaps a decade or so ago, I was hired to sub in a community band, the rehearsal ended, one of the trombonists was welcoming me, several people were literally running with chairs and stands to get them put away, and one stand was knocked over which missed my instrument by angstroms. Lesson learned. (ie. Community bands tend to rehearse only once weekly in spaces that are not controlled by them, are required to completely strike the rehearsal space for each rehearsal, do it themselves, and those who undo it afterwards are very eager to finish that job quickly and leave...ok: particularly in Memphis, as being a straggler in a parking lot at night is really risky.)

Finally, there are quite a few orchestra concerts where I'm only playing the tuba (probably 2/3 of them), and it stays in my lap the entire time - during rehearsals and concerts.

One thing that makes me chuckle just a little bit is that I know good and well that some people who view it as taboo to set their tubas on their bells are some of the very same who carry their tubas around in padded sacks, rather than hard cases. Further, they put those padded sacks on their backs and rely on a pair of nylon straps (5, 10, or even 30-year-old nylon straps - holding up 30 lbs. of weight) to prevent otherwise disasterous situations.