Quality Piston B-flat Tuba?

[Pat S]

Some of the finest tuba players on the world are here.

That's been my experience as well. Gracious hospitality has been the norm for me. When the day comes when I say something off-the-mark (could be any day now), I won't be surprised when I'm met with brutal honesty.

[toobagrowl]

Geez --- 16 Yamaha 641 BBb tubas? Those are expensive tubas, and are plenty good for a high school program. Get them serviced by a good repair tech

[deholder]

But it was tuba cult to Don swim trunks and take ye ol tuba in the shower for a good rinse before it was put away. It was bad form to not care for the horn.

Do tell... That's an interesting tuba maintenance solution. Oh the idyllic days of college!

Well there were no tubs, just showers in the building. So we would take out all valves, slides and clean them in the sinks and then do tuba in the shower. It was just a rinse, nothing chemical or soapy. But it seemed to do the trick. Oh yeah, we also used a shoe string with a penny or something on it to pull a rag through all the pipes.
Nothing like a 4/4 Conn Nickle Convertible

[Jess Haney]

I would vote towards a top action Yamaha 321 or the like.....why?.....the valves are kept inside the horn and are away from unwanted damage from laying the horn down on its front. this comes in handy with high school kids that are always in a hurry, and like the King 2341 it has many clones and well and the used ones can be bought at a descent price. Parts are always available and most repair techs are familiar with them. I once saw a high school here in Colorado that had 12 Conn 20js that were overhauled to make a very formidable tuba section. Same principle and very sturdy horns. I have even seen middle schools with those placed in tuba tamers for the little guys and they just roll around on the floor.

[NCSUSousa]

I would vote towards a top action Yamaha 321 or the like.....why?.....the valves are kept inside the horn and are away from unwanted damage from laying the horn down on its front.

I've been told that laying a top action horn down on its front can actually damage the valve casing. The force transfers through the valve branch knuckle (where it turns to enter the valve) and can warp the valve casing itself. It's actually part of the arguement that's made for buying the front action King/Conn/Jupiter for MS/HS bands instead of the top action version. Valve stems may bend easy, but they're easy to fix too. Valve casings on the other hand can't easily be fixed.
My HS had King 3/4 convertibles for marching and concert band and the director never let us lay them on their fronts.

I'd love to hear from the repair pros about this subject. It's been a while since I talked to the guys at Pearson Music about this. (Pearson's was the Durham NC music shop with a repair department - when I was in HS and College.)

[Jess Haney]

Those full-size Yamaha-Chino large 4/4 top-actions sound/play just fine...

...Just don't knock 'em over. Bent-inward slides jack the valve casings on top-actions, and the bell is in the way of access to the valve casings (for repair).

good to know. I remember my band director playing hell to have our Mercedes tubas repaired after the horns were laid down on their fronts.