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Because virtually every rehearsal/performance - these days - is the better part of an hour (or more than an hour) away (and because my main-squeeze instruments - extra-large B-flat and F cimbasso) are both rotary, I'm actually dragging "tools" along with me.

I do NOT tell anyone else, because I don't want them always thinking of me (at least, not at rehearsals/performances) when crap goes wrong with their stuff...

...but (ALL CONTAINED WITHIN one of those super-compact "Mirafone/Miraphone" vintage-ish cordura black zipper bags (probably only 8" x 3" x 3") I carry this crap:

- "THE" mouthpiece - in a rubber pouch (I don't need it falling from the mouthpiece hole in the hard case - and hitting the instrument.)
- oil
- music-reading glasses (in compart HARD glasses case - so they won't get bent up)
- extra pencil and eraser (I keep one clipped to each instrument.)
- razor with good blade (I can't play on stubble, and - sometimes - I don't have a change - nor care to - go back to the hotel, only to shave.)
- Torx T6 driver (for Miraphone's goofy-headed linkage screws)
- regular mid-side blade screwdriver (for regular screw heads, prying, holding hot things down - if emergency soldering, or for who-knows-what)
- small rawhide mallet (original handle was busted, so it's roughly the large 7 inches of a busted hickory drumstick).

(I no longer carry an "emergency" mouthpiece. I've never needed it and - if I forget my mouthpiece - its REALLY time to hang it up.)

Each of my (hard) cases has some sort of place into which this little cordura pouch can squeeze in.

As (nearly 100% of the time) the venue or organization supplies music stands, I almost never need to drag a stand to the stage or rehearsal hall...and those things that some of you buy (which are so bulky, etc.) still puzzle me, but I DO keep a KM101 in the floor of the back seat of my Toyota Matrix. It folds up to c. a foot long by a couple of inches square, is black ("wire") and looks nicer (to me) than "American"-style wire stands. I will NOT tote anything larger than that into/up-to a venue.

so...(ok...) I HAVE nerded out just a wee bit, but my total collection of nerd crap (INCLUDING the stand that NEVER leaves the backseat floorboard) is smaller than a pair of sneakers.

I HAVE had a rotary carriage bracket (F tuba) to fail on a 4-gigs-in-a-day out-of-town brass quintet "toot-'n'-scoot", but (during the scheduled lunch break) I simply went to Harbor Freight, picked up a butane torch/solder, went next door to a smoke shop and bought butane and (on the back fold-down hatch of my Matrix - in a parking lot under a shade tree outside the lunch restaurant) I affected a no-flux repair and (as the other guys ordered for me) didn't even miss lunch.

so...(ok...) I HAVE nerded out just a wee bit, but my total collection of nerd crap (INCLUDING the stand that NEVER leaves the backseat floorboard) is smaller than a pair of sneakers.

I bet it is not smaller than a pair of MY sneakers.

Mrs. bloke's and my daughters' feet (though narrow or medium narrow) are sizes 8-1/2 to 9...

...but not 16 1/2.

I still measure out at a 6, but I am no longer willing to have my feet squashed by shoes, and because of the width / last that I need that is never available, I just buy them big and wear socks. As they say, once you reach "a certain age" you just don't care about whether you are fashionable or not. You do care if your feet hurt.

I no longer carry an "emergency" mouthpiece. I've never needed it and - if I forget my mouthpiece - its REALLY time to hang it up

This made me laugh but still not as bad as forgetting the tuba.

I accidentally left my mouthpiece at home before . I now keep one in my glove box in case of an emergency.

Before I stick any instrument in a hard case or - in the past - a bag, I stick the mouthpiece in it and make sure that it will play before heading off to a rehearsal or performance. That's also my way of making sure that the mouthpiece is with the instrument.

I have a mouthpiece in my case and two mouthpieces in my bag. The ones in my bag are standard and small shank (one of each) and the one in the case matches the instrument. Very occasionally people do forget a mouthpiece, I can’t remember doing so but section mates have and I’ve been able to help them and me (I want them playing and not sitting out). Look after your section mates and one day they might just look after you … and thinking about it they have and on several occasions.

I would be in somewhat of a mess if I forgot the mouthpiece -- the one I use is narrower than most cups and my face would not be happy with a borrowed substitute. So far, so good. But it's not like the horn, which never sits out, and when it's in its case (old RB leather one,) mouthpieces, oils, and ear plugs etc are in the side pocket. I have had occasion to lend the spare mouthpiece to a horn player who forgot hers, though, and that is why I have it.

BTW the second to last sentence contains an Oxford comma. Just learned what that is recently.

I keep a tiny pair of vice-grips in my case now...not for instrument repair, but to lock a lazy music stand in place - something that became an issue when I started using my iPad instead of paper music. My wife loves to give me crap about this (she's perfectly happy with paper music). And sure, I could go get a different stand, but inevitably the rack of them is on the opposite side of the stage and dodging percusion/trumpets/etc isn't something I always care to do.

The vice-grips replaced my long-time Sousaphone universal repair kit - a small roll of vinyl electrical tape.

There’s a fine line between carrying around too much stuff and not enough.

I have a little padded/insulated neoprene lunch bag from the local grocery store that is my nerd bag. In it:

-Mouthpiece(s) (plural for when I'm bringing two tubas)
-Valve oil
-Slide oil (because slides are never as perfect as some blokes think)
-A small screwdriver
-A small rawhide hammer
-Pencil
-"Valve oil" (my tremor medication)
-Small black towel
-Music glasses (in a hard case)

Not much different than Joe, except for the "valve oil".

I also carry a floor stand (BB), and my music stand is for holding my ipad, which will be in there somewhere. (I don't use the floor stand for quintet gigs.) And I have a Peak stand in the car if it's a gig that provides paper music. The stands live in the car. The neoprene bag either goes into the Hirsbrunner bag (for Symphonic Winds activities) or the 184 hard case (for quintet activities).

Rick "does NOT put the 'valve oil' in a valve oil bottle--too dangerous" Denney

Embrace the nerd!

Rick Denney wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 12:50 pm things

I carry that adapted keyboard stand that I refashioned (and sit on 90° away from the intended way, with my tuba also sitting on it...but ONLY bring that when I'm using the 98 on a job).

cimbasso / compact B-flat / F / E-flat...They don't need for their bottom bows to rest at the same level as my butt, and all either sit on my lap or - cimbasso - on the floor.

The Holton "compact" B-flat...
...is great when a symphony orchestra (and rhythm section, and organ console, and saxophones, etc.) are all jam-packed into the altar area of a church, and there's no way to (safely) rest a tuba on the floor...YET the music requirements define the "weight" of a contrabass tuba.

- bloke "I still might possibly (??) sell the 32"-tall 19"-bell 4+1 Holton anyway, though...because I I'm sure I could play all those sorts of things on my F tuba. The Holton is a helluva tuba, and packs a punch."

Mary Ann wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 9:32 am I would be in somewhat of a mess if I forgot the mouthpiece -- the one I use is narrower than most cups and my face would not be happy with a borrowed substitute. So far, so good. But it's not like the horn, which never sits out, and when it's in its case (old RB leather one,) mouthpieces, oils, and ear plugs etc are in the side pocket. I have had occasion to lend the spare mouthpiece to a horn player who forgot hers, though, and that is why I have it.

BTW the second to last sentence contains an Oxford comma. Just learned what that is recently.

I am an Oxford comma nerd. I still use two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence as well. Spelling is suspect.

There was a trombone player in our local orchestra and community band who always had with him a small wrench for tightening the base-to-shaft bolt on a Manhasset stand. I'll admit that I made use of his services a couple of times.

ProAm wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 8:32 pm There was a trombone player in our local orchestra and community band who always had with him a small wrench for tightening the base-to-shaft bolt on a Manhasset stand. I'll admit that I made use of his services a couple of times.

...??

As long as I'm wearing a Shriner's fez, I'm always able to tighten those bolts just by thinking about it.

The only thing I think you're missing from that community band toolbag is a 3/4 inch(?) wrench for the bolt on the Manhasset stands. It's been so long since I've actually looked at the size I carry with me in my gig bag I don't remember off the top of my head.

I used the tuba stand to hold the cowbell last night during the Great Western something-or-others piece, held on with a single winding of electrical tape, just in case I whacked it at the wrong angle. With the tuba stand I have to carry a pair of pliers to tighten it or it ends up descending to the floor. I had to get a junior one in order to have it go low enough, and it is what it is. Definitely sturdy enough. And since I made my height-modifiable pad I don't use the stand. Cow bell actually rang pretty well. Even if I was a measure late.