When they bust the lower mouthpipe loose because they refuse to use the tension screw...

[bloke]

... but then they continue to twist it after they bust it loose until the lower mouthpipe tube resembles a peppermint stick, that's why I continue to believe that a whole bunch of these kids are using weed.

I just can't conceive of any other viable explanation.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

Now that there's a combination of those things costing over $100 wholesale and none of the manufacturers are keeping them in stock, past the summer I don't really stock those lower mouthpipes anymore in drawers - for bands' convenience.

I do lay some back over the summers, but - once those are gone, the manufacturers really aren't making anymore until months later. Also - as far as having my money sunk into parts because I'm a business and I should do that, with everything costing twice as much (but our incomes all being about the same as they were before), we all can't do all the things that we used to be able to do...

... so - again - my repair work again is getting to be more like Cuban automobile repairmen's work: taking broken parts and fixing them or making replacement parts here.

I'm un-twisting these lower mouthpipe tubes, hammering down the high folds, jamming dent balls up through them, and silver brazing the cracks (If they are brass - instead of silver, I have the luxury of annealing these damaged parts, but - ridiculously - the overwhelming majority of school sousaphones are silver plated)...again: unless it's summer time and I will have laid a few back of each make.

As far as the neck tension screw is concerned, I'm encountering some that are very difficult to turn because lime is actually forming on the threads from them never being turned.

They are also busting the body elbow braces off at the flanges from smacking the bells against door frames every time they go through doorways, as well as breaking off valve stems, breaking off water keys, and all those sorts of things that also occur from hitting that stuff on doorways every time they go through them.

Water keys (wholesale) no longer cost five bucks, and body elbow brace assemblies no longer cost ten bucks.

More evidence of weed use is that first branch and second branch dents are no longer the size of quarters or half dollars, but are the size and shape of half cantaloupes or half footballs...

Oh yeah, and - even though we have and are experiencing hyperinflation - the school purchasing departments are still limiting expenditures to individual businesses to $500 a week, so I'm having to stretch these repair invoices out over months of time, so we end up not getting paid until next year.


...Buying endless piles of crap that we don't need is part of the reason that we're probably actually about 50 or 60 trillion dollars in debt (and not just the b.s. # - 40), but some of the reason is that stuff that's getting bought is getting torn up as fast as it's bought.

[Mary Ann]

Oh, since it's probably 100% boys who are playing those tubas, my bet is that it is the male "make it go or else" that is at work.

[bloke]

Oh, since it's probably 100% boys who are playing those tubas, my bet is that it is the male "make it go or else" that is at work.

I'm sure, and - mixed with cannabis - that's the magic recipe.

People my age ask, "How can these college kids believe that crap they are told in their required classes?"

duh: weed

[Mary Ann]

I don't think it is weed per se. I think it is the complete turn-around from education being about learning how to think critically, to "education" being "get the grade for getting the right answer on the multiple choice test." Because the grades have to do with whether you can get into college, and as we all know, college is mandatory now to get that high paying desk job that also entails getting the answer the boss wants to hear, so you can move up in the organization. THAT is why we don't have people going into the trades now -- you have to THINK and be INDEPENDENT in order to be successful at a trade, and our "education" ingrains the opposite.

[Jperry1466]

I don't think it is weed per se. I think it is the complete turn-around from education being about learning how to think critically, to "education" being "get the grade for getting the right answer on the multiple choice test." Because the grades have to do with whether you can get into college, and as we all know, college is mandatory now to get that high paying desk job that also entails getting the answer the boss wants to hear, so you can move up in the organization. THAT is why we don't have people going into the trades now -- you have to THINK and be INDEPENDENT in order to be successful at a trade, and our "education" ingrains the opposite.

Well said.

[Jperry1466]

Oh yeah, and - even though we have and are experiencing hyperinflation - the school purchasing departments are still limiting expenditures to individual businesses to $500 a week, so I'm having to stretch these repair invoices out over months of time, so we end up not getting paid until next year.

Having been on the other end of that seesaw (Teacher - Business Office - Vendor), I spend countless hours begging the business office to pay those bills, having done the paperwork exactly as demanded up front, so my vendors wouldn't quit me. I wound up figuring out that it was a power trip for the business manager. In all four districts that I taught, every time a new overpaid business manager was hired, he/she would ask me how purchasing and repairs were done by his predecessor. After my explanation, the answer was invariably "you could go to jail for that". Apparently, every school business manager in Texas needs to be in jail - not a bad idea.

[Grumpikins]

I've watched the sousaphone players in our band.. on and off the field...there's little to no instruction on how to handle, use, assemble, pack the instruments..... they really get left to figure it out on their own....the instructors are wonderful, but as a collective, certain things get overlooked...

Sent from my SM-S367VL using Tapatalk

[bloke]

They're not just twisting tubing/braces and busting lead solder joints, but they're also busting silver brazed connections.

[Mary Ann]

It's interesting to remember when I first took up the horn, not as a kid, but at 45. I was already a very long term violinist to the point of being basically retired, with a very, very fine instrument. So I was not even slightly careless with the horn, and the first one I had was borrowed. I still remember clanging the bell against a Manhasset because I simply did not know "where it was in space" yet and despite my being careful, I still whacked it. And died a thousand deaths, but it happened. I can imagine that even kids who ARE careful still have the same problem. And of course the ones who are careless never had parents who would have killed them if they damaged their violin.

[travisd]

... but then they continue to twist it after they bust it loose until the lower mouthpipe tube resembles a peppermint stick, that's why I continue to believe that a whole bunch of these kids are using weed.

I just can't conceive of any other viable explanation.

Having seen this happen a couple of times, I would tend to expect that it's less purposefully trying to adjust the neck, and more about "moves" going wrong - horn swings, etc - and/or neck getting snagged one something/someone else. They grab the neck to keep from losing mouthpiece/bits during the more 'athletic' maneuvers.

Heck, too many of the ones I've encountered over the years (college, homecoming) seem to suffer from the inability to tighten the screw enough to actually keep the neck from moving. Usually a piece of paper (ripped from the music in the flip folder - try that with iphone based music!) gets wrapped around the neck to make a tighter fit.

[bloke]

The 20th-21st centuries have been centuries of vast/fast change.
- many for better
- some for worse

We didn't (even) put small dents in our stuff.
At home, denting something (car/lamp/fixture/tool/another family member's piece of property/whatever)would have involved a paddling and privileges taken away.
At school, small dents in tubas/sousaphones would not have been noticed by band directors, but large ones (or epic damage - such as this) certainly would have, and would also have resulted in paddlings, and parents being contacted. That having been said, small dents would have been noticed by section leaders, reported to band officers, and resulted in demerits (posted on a chart on the wall).

Had any of us "cranked" necks or lower mouthpipes, that would have become a badge of shame until graduation day - and probably brought back up at band reunions.

Having grown up when some types of behaviors/actions were clearly classified as "good" and others clearly classified as "bad", it's still difficult to adjust to nothing-in-particular being either of those things.

[tofu]

.