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All of my horns have a thumb ring that's basically a flat piece of brass rolled into a ring, with the edges rolled inward as a "lip."



I usually rest the knuckle of my thumb on the inside of the ring so that I'm not adding tension, but I guess it's not helping. Not to mention that when I occasionally stand with the tuba, I'm sure I'm putting a lot of weight on the thumb, even if I'm using a strap, or holding the horn with my left hand.

Problem is, the ring on either my 12J or Kanstul 900-4B still bites into the skin. It's created a callus that then tears open (no bleeding), causing some pain.

I think something more like the St. Petersburg, with what was probably a brass rod turned into a ring, might be more comfortable, since there's no flat spots. Or, maybe some grip tape on the stock ring itself to soften the edges?

Has anyone modded their thumb ring to be easier on the thumb?

On older instruments, l they are a size which fits a juvenile thumb or the thumb of an average smaller pre-war aldult.

As long as the angle is correct and the position is correct, you probably just want something that's larger. New King thumb rings are larger versions of the same thing. If it's not in the right place, that's an easier thing to fix than one that's too small.

If you don't want to spend a bunch of money for a European thingy, Ohio Travel Bag has some brass rings that are made of round material, and a few of them are solid brass. Someone can un-solder your thumb ring that you don't like and braze an Ohio Travel Bag ring to a flange and swap them out for you without you having to buy something off of one of those European websites. It won't look like quite the right thing, it but it should address your complaints.

I have several (round) brass rings sitting around in my parts boxes that I got just for this purpose (and never used ). They're of different sizes, and my plan was to file a flat spot on the outer rim of one and (silver?) solder that to some sort of base that I'd then solder to the horn. Instead, I built myself a sit-on tuba stand and so didn't need a ring for anything at all.

I forget where I got them, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere like Lowes or maybe the local hardware store. But they're not exactly esoterica. Amazon offers some in various sizes (solid rings) here:

If I were going to take the trouble to try to DIY something like this for a horn, I'd make one that would be adjustable via some sort of slide/thumscrew lock mechanism, or something like that.

The Conn may very well be a smaller one (the valveset is in a shop in Texas being overhauled), but the Kanstul I would say is for older players. It's a 5/4 BBb that weighs about 35 lbs. I think I can fit my thumb all the way in to the last knuckle, but I basically balance it on the first knuckle, right on the wrinkle where you'd bend it. I thought taking the break from Oktoberfest would let it heal, but just playing Tuba Christmas and a commercial orchestra gig that week brought the pain right back. It's once again healed, but only takes a few hours' worth to chafe against the skin there.

Maybe that brass ring from Ohio Travel would help. Those rings certainly look thicker and more comfortable than the St. Petersburg horns some students have had. One of the guys at Tuba Christmas had a ton of grip tape on an older horn that he just had modified (an old Besson Imperial Eb high pitch cut down to F, it sounded surprisingly amazing), and it was just comfortable to hold those areas, more so than the leather wraps that were popular about 20 years ago. I've been thinking that might make the ring a bit more bearable without having to get someone to do the soldering.

I found a couple of those bare brass rings sitting around. Polished brass; no seams

Rough dimensions:

1.Outside dia: 3.5 cm, Inside dia: 2.6 cm Thickness: 4.5 mm.

2.Outside dia: 4.25 cm Inside dia: 3.15 cm Thickness: 5.30 mm

If you're interested in messing with them, send me an address and I'll drop them to you in a 1st class envelope. I can't see a future in which I use them myself.

You can cut that ring off of its own flange, and reuse the flange for the new ring, yes?

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Dec 26, 2023 3:58 pm You can cut that ring off of its own flange, and reuse the flange for the new ring, yes?

Good call. Or desolder the old ring and just solder the old one right to the flange?

I have the same problem on one of my horns. I coated the inside with clear fingernail polish. Many layers. It’s not perfect but it’s a cheap and easy fix.

Glove?

ghmerrill wrote: ↑Tue Dec 26, 2023 2:45 pm I found a couple of those bare brass rings sitting around. Polished brass; no seams

Rough dimensions:

1.Outside dia: 3.5 cm, Inside dia: 2.6 cm Thickness: 4.5 mm.

2.Outside dia: 4.25 cm Inside dia: 3.15 cm Thickness: 5.30 mm

If you're interested in messing with them, send me an address and I'll drop them to you in a 1st class envelope. I can't see a future in which I use them myself.

PMing now.

I remove mine because I can't even reach them. But -- I would put gorilla tape (specifically) on the problem area and remove the roughness and the contact with the metal.

You could do the trick that ladies do when wearing their boyfriends big school ring. Wrap the problem area in yarn to fit and then apply several coats of fingernail polish.

The choice of colors is endless,

CCC

As to not being able to reach, I have had two moved.

I didn't even bother to comment on the roughness of the metal thing, because I would just assume that anyone would pull out a small file and some cloth backed sandpaper.

Could something like this be silver soldered to a plate of nickel silver?


https://www.riggingwarehouse.com/341-s0 ... IKEALw_wcB

I'll admit: I'm not a fan of thumb rings at all, and have removed them from all my instruments. I mean, what exactly are they for? Not for lifting or supporting the instrument, and not for keeping your hand in the 'correct' position. Quite often they're the cause of repetitive stress injuries and/or carpal tunnel syndrome, I'm convinced.

I like them because they gave my fingers leverage for pushing the valves down. Without them, my wrist has to be tighter to counteract the "equal and opposite motion" of pushing the valves down

LeMark wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 7:38 pm I like them because they gave my fingers leverage for pushing the valves down. Without them, my wrist has to be tighter to counteract the "equal and opposite motion" of pushing the valves down

You must have very strong springs.

I could imagine my thumb getting sore if a ring was too small or in the wrong place for me. I guess when I've owned instruments like that, I just moved them to their ideal locations. The 5450 thumb ring had an adjustment whereby it could be moved around a good bit, but all of those places involved the ring being parallel to the direction of the bell - and none of those were any good, so I cut it off of the adjustment arm and put it back on at a 45° angle. Voila.

When I play any of my instruments, my thumb is never sore, and never even green with brass or nickel-brass residue. I don't think I'm touching it very much, which again probably means that it's in the ideal spot. I believe I sort of like it being there for "security" (??). Some people don't like the way seat belts feel, but most people put them on - even though they may not ever use them. Maybe that's me with thumb rings...(??)

Well phooey, I just realized that the actual request was for annoying thumb ring suggestions. Trying to think of something annoying to suggest, but probably this post is annoying enough.

Why I specified gorilla tape -- there was a time a few months ago when I had to woodshed pretty intensely for a brass band piece with some very fast passages. Because of the size of my hands, I have to wham the valves "full finger" and cannot be delicate because despite how wonderful those valves are, my size / strength hands need to wham them. The edges of the levers were starting to wear on my fingers, and I solved that by putting gorilla tape on the ends of the levers. You can also see why the otherwise comfortable thumb ring has been taken off.