Severe intonation issues

[jeopardymaster]

I am familiar with an earlier version of this model, one I acquired from Walter Sear back in the '70's. Picked it out of a FLOCK of them at his studio in NYC. And boy do I ever regret I sold it. As I recall, I had no significant intonation trouble using a 24AW (slightly flat but easily adjustable 5th partial), but a host of other MPs - Rose Orchestra, Sear Helleberg, Conn Helleberg, Bach 18, Bach 7, and Herrick (wide and shallow, tiny throat, Rex Conner's personal favorite) among them - gave me much less favorable results.

This is not to suggest that particular mouthpiece for you - though it did do the trick for me. I'm just saying, if there's a code to crack here, I hope you can crack it and finding the right mouthpiece may be the way to go. The horn LOOKS really fine and its previous owner had the mojo with it, so I'd say your chances are pretty good. Patient experimentation may pay off for you.

[Phil Dawson]

I know this is going to sound dumb but it happened to me one time and was easy to fix. Check to make sure that there are no minor leaks in the horn. Where I ran into trouble was with a water key that was leaking just a little bit. I was still getting good sound (at least for me) but my intonation had gone south. I finally had both water keys removed and I haven't had any problems with this since. You can check this by putting a piece of paper towel on the cork or use something else if you choose. Even better yet take the horn to a good repair person and have them check it out.
Good Luck, Phil

[Tuba Guy]

So, it's been 2 months since I first posted this topic. I worked with the horn to get the pitches as close as possible, but was still feeling like I was fighting the tuba, rather than being its friend. One night in my practicing, I was messing around and sat how I like to sit (back straight, feet on the floor, nothing too unusual). I then lifted and twisted the horn so it met me where I wanted to be, and that solved all of the problems. Of course, there was the issue of having to keep the horn suspended in mid-air, so I couldn't actually play like that, but it did make me realize that I was not getting to the mouthpiece. I tried sitting on a piece of foam (thanks again, Neptune. The foam you used to pack it brought me to a pretty good height for playing), and it worked, but still didn't feel completely comfortable. I finally brought it in to my repairman, and he lowered the leadpipe about 2 inches. I'm now happy to say that this tuba ROCKS!!!
Orchestra concert tonight where I'll be doing Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and Lizst's Les Preludes. For the first time in orchestra, I'm comfortable playing, and with my volume. There's some laquer scarring, but I'd much rather have a horn that isn't factory fresh than one that isn't playable.
...now to find a mouthpiece that combines the Helleberg rim with a Bach 7 cup. In euro shank.

[bububassboner]

...now to find a mouthpiece that combines the Helleberg rim with a Bach 7 cup. In euro shank.

https://www.dillonmusic.com/MouthpieceC ... es2008.pdf" target="_blank

Get a bach 7, have a helleberg rim put on for $25, then have it re-shanked for $55

[imperialbari]

THe blokepiece #2 underpart with Euro shank combined with the blokepiece #1 rim may be close to your desires. But I cannot tell you where you would get the chance to try it before buying.

Klaus

[Tuba Guy]

The mouthpiece thing is more of a want than something that I forsee happening anytime soon. My CB50 is in desperate need of new washers (proly going to go blokewashers when I get time to sit down and order them), and I think getting an AGR would probably be more beneficial in the long run than getting my mouthpieces reshanked

[Wyvern]

"Tuba Guy", Great to hear you have got the Kaiser to work for you!

Yes the mouthpiece was positioned very high. I used to have to drop my Tubassist stand over 2 inches compared to the Neptune.