TubaForum.net

If admin wants to move this to the Repair forum, that's fine, I just thought more people might see it here.

I'm curious to know what other instruments do to "Franken" their instruments.

We tuba players concoct entire instruments from spare parts, swap bells, change valvesets, add valves, etc. What do others do? I know of things like heavy top/bottom caps on trumpets, interchangeable leadpipes on trombones, etc. I assume it's mostly a brass player thing since it's "easier" to solder/unsolder parts. I can't imagine a woodwind "cutting" their instrument to a new key as we often hear people doing in the tuba world.

What Franken-practices have you seen/heard about in other instrument circles?

not exactly the same thing, but 5 of my 6 electric basses have been modded HEAVILY

we're talking all new electronics, or making it a fretless, routed out new cavities for pickups, even adding a string on one of them

I can't imagine non brass players would do much. Can you imagine: Franken oboe? Franken Harp? I cut my alto sax to F

Its a good question though, do other brass players mod their own horns beyond changing valve caps and trombone leadpipes or an we the only ones crazy enough to think "What could possibly go wrong?"

Trumpet players do all sorts of things to their horns: new bells, reposition braces, second leadpipe, swap out valve sets, and mouthpiece safaris by the hundreds, not just dozens as we do.

Trombone players swap out different types of valves, different lengths of tuning slides, join mismatched slide and bell sections, etc...

Most brass players only swap out stuff that’s easy to swap out; they want to screw their instruments up…ie. “pee on them, to mark their territory”… but don’t wanna spend a ton of money doing it.
As examples, horn and trumpet players swap out mouthpipe tubes, trumpet players swap out tuning slide bows, and horn players swap out screw bells.
Sax players swap out necks, flute players swap out head joints, clarinet players swap out barrels and bells, and oboe players only swap out bells.
Euphonium players… Well… Euphonium players buy the next Rubank book.

I added a 5th valve to one of my Euphs. does that count?

I measured it to swap out bells on it, but never found one appropriate

In the clarinet world, there are myriad aftermarket bells and barrels available these days. And, there's never been a greater selection of mouthpieces, reeds, and ligatures than what we have now.

Some vintage Chedeville, Kaspar, and Lelandais clarinet mouthpieces have the same cult following as vintage Helleberg tuba mouthpieces and Bach Mt. Vernon 3C trumpet mouthpieces.

One of my clarinets has a Oehler-style right-hand C#/G# touchpiece added to it, and also a touchpiece extension to the Eb/Bb side key.

Some clarinetists have had instruments retrofitted with a left-hand Ab/Eb lever.

I've had the touchpiece positions on my Yamaha clarinet tweaked so the ergonomics match that of my Backun clarinet.

Just as with tubas, spring tensions can be adjusted.

Pad type can influence the response, timbre, projection, and tactile feedback of a clarinet. I prefer cork pads to be installed on the normally-closed tone holes of the upper joint as well as the open G vent, and Ferree's B32 leather pads elsewhere. I have yet to encounter a clarinet that didn't benefit greatly from this configuration.

In extreme cases, the bore of a clarinet can be reamed out, fitted with a hard rubber sleeve, and rebored. This is a much more common modification for fine vintage oboes.

Also in extreme cases, an injured or arthritic professional clarinetist with have some or all of the ring keys retrofitted with plateau keys.

Adjustable thumb rests, thumb rest cushions, and add-on thumb saddles are another popular addition to soprano clarinets.

Not exactly a modification, but...I have clarinets made out of metal, hard rubber, metal-lined hard rubber, various plastics, and wood--mostly to satisfy my curiosity about the advantages and disadvantages that each material offers.

E-flat and C clarinets can have an supplemental joint added between the bell and the lower joint that provides a tone hole for the low E/middle B, instead of sounding the note through the end of the bell.

Some players of the basset horn and lower clarinets have the angle adjusted on the neck, and have non-OEM necks reworked to fit their instruments.

I resemble these next remarks: bass guitar players are always searching for new strings, pickups, wiring, effects boxes, tone woods, swapping out Fender style necks, bodies, and other parts, etc., on the quest to find the holy grail of tone, much like we do with mouthpieces, and some with entire instruments. Alas, after 45+ years of playing electric instruments, now, when I do that, I have a pretty good idea of what I want, how to read through the marketing hype and "specs" to find what I'm looking for, and usually find it used. For example, my last project, or should I say latest project, (since I'm not sure I'll ever completely give it up, mainly because I will try something that piques my interest, keep it if I like it or sell it on if I don't like it) is a short scale bass which I upgraded the pickups, changed the bridge, put on a new set of a fairly new model of strings, and will be changing the potentiometers to sweep more to my liking and possibly change out tuners if the stock ones become unstable. Would I ever recoup the cost of any of these "improvements" if I sold it? No. I know that going in. But will I make that money back with gigs over time? Definitely. And it provides a legitimate deduction on my Schedule C.

In the same vein, electric guitar players are even worse in this regard than electric bassists.

Only one bass here close to stock, and that's the acoustic bass.

Being the husband to a flute professor/big-city free lancer, they're more often replacing entire parts of their instruments: custom head joints, head joint crowns, extended foot joints, body materials, add-on vibration transfers and, with the advent of Codid-19, embouchure plate baffles (flute playing is almost as bad as singing in this respect). Tricked out, a heavy-metal flute often costs more than a decent pro-level tuba, and there are entire industries supporting this.

On the other hand, I know a frequent horn sub with the Met Opera who plays a box-stock 8D including mouthpipe. Killer player, go figure...

LeMark wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 9:38 am Only one bass here close to stock, and that's the acoustic bass.

Mine (acoustic electric...so I was WRONG...I have TWO basses...and I sold my 5-string 1940's Kay upright a few years ago) technically isn't a mod (is it?), but I had to put one of those sound hole covers on mine, because I was having to be too careful to avoid feedback, when using that bass.

LeMark wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 9:38 am Only one bass here close to stock, and that's the acoustic bass.

Did you add a 5th string to the Peavey T-40? Ross Vallory would be proud (not like those basses weren't already 20 lbs to begin with).

yep, I also cut some body contours into it, and gave it a sunburst finish

this is what it looks like now, and what it used to

Tubajug wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:49 am If admin wants to move this to the Repair forum, that's fine, I just thought more people might see it here.

I'm curious to know what other instruments do to "Franken" their instruments.

Trumpet doofuses do all sorts of things- lead pipes, exchanging bells, adding/subtracting braces.

I've never seen a frankentrumpet bass trumpet but I would suppose by selecting the right pieces, one could be made.

It's a lot easier to swap around lead pipes on a trumpet because they are straight and are relatively easy to exchange. Only two or three solder joints. If a tuba player wants anything other than what the manufacturer provides, it is quite the process to wrap a piece of brass around a mandrel, solder it then pound the joint down and bending it to shape.

The Peavey is improved.
I've always liked a sunburst finish on solid-body guitars.

In the past, I ended up with a desirable-vintage sunburst Precision (though I prefer my vintage Jazz) with a nice neck, and for a low price.

I bought a kit that allowed for alteration of the Precision to a 5-string (as Precision 4-string spacing is wider than Jazz 4-string spacing) ending up with "Jazz" string spacing, and WITHOUT altering any of the factory parts. I only had to carefully pop off the o.e.m. nut and store it away (for a future owner).

I liked the fact that no chopping nor drilling was required.

re: bass-playing in general...
Both with bass-playing (particularly since I mostly only played ONE bass) and with my nylon-string guitar-playing, I eventually broke the habit of looking at the neck.
Violinists get to do it without it being noticed - because the neck is right down their path of vision to their sheet music, but I was mostly interested in breaking the habit so I could look at women at the gigs where I was working.

How did you install a 5th tuning machine without drilling?

LeMark wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 12:15 pm How did you install a 5th tuning machine without drilling?

They cleverly designed a combination tuning key and string retainer - which fit into the factory-drilled string retainer hole.

Did you get the 5-string bridge from Peavey as well? Those things are so body heavy it's nuts, but the tone was amazing.

No, I modded the bridge to fit in a Kahler bridge, with the original peavey bridge sandwiched between the parts