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Ok, well I am sure some of you are saying "it's about time". I have finally finished the last piece of the puzzle on my Conn/York/Jason tuba... The one eye sore that the 5xJ's had is now gone..... well more like moved. Yup, that 4th valve wrap now looks and feels right. Here is what I have now:


Here is a side by side with a stock 52J:


And another view:


and finally the backside.. I made some use of all the space they left me....how nice of them. :



Here is a brief synopsis of what has been done:
1)York Bell in place of the original
2).830 5th valve added
3)5th valve wrap completely redone/re-routed with larger tubing.
4)Valves have been re-fit by Andersons
5)Linkage/thumb lever/thumb ring are all custom
6)Finger buttons - the red will be back, just using a set of light weight ones I machined for the time being.
7)4th valve wrap has been completely re-routed ( I was able to use 80% of the original parts !!)
Main tuning slide has been shortened/re built

Any questions??

How does it play?

Yeah, it IS pretty... how does it sound?

Well I would be remiss if I did not suggest anyone in the area come on down and try it out

But in all honesty I have heard nothing but praise from fellow tuba players and musicians alike. I know Matt Walters and Scott Mendoker both think it is a fantastic playing horn.

Sorry to come in late in the project but which York bell did you use?

BTW, your fourth valve wrap looks much better than the Conn factory wrap. It makes the horn look more balanced, at least in these pictures. Good job.

Bell?

This is a bell from a J.W> York and Sons Monster Eb - circa 1920

The 4th valve wrap has totally changed (improved) the balance and feel of the horn.

Looks great Jay. Of all the modifications you've made what do think had the biggest impact on the sound/playability of the horn?

Congratulations for your beautiful work. You just can't beat those old York bells. I just swapped the BBb bell on my yorkaphone for another York Monster Eb bell with the same dimensions but in better condition. It's interesting that the bells are exactly alike, but the bottom bow on the Eb is slightly smaller at the small end than the one on the Bb.
I have not measured carefully yet, but I think that York bell that we know an love is identical to the new one-piece King bells. Perhaps somebody at UMI will wise up some day and start offerring those bells to shade-tree tuba mechanics for a reasonable price.

Well, the benefits how I see them have been:
Bell - Most improvement in the actual sound of the horn

5th Valve - improved the blow of the horn(since the air needs to pass through it at a relatively critical point)

other things that have helped - rebuilding the main tuning slide a little shorter was able to clean up some not so clean work)

All in all the intonation has Greatly improved...the sound is wonderful and the feel/response of the horn is about as good as any other out there.


Art... i do agree, wouldnt that be something is someone would make these bells at an affordable price!!! Oh, the possibilities.

wow, how long did it take?

Albertibass wrote:wow, how long did it take?

Well, that is kind of hard to tell. Since in my impatient way I did not take the time to record times/numbers/measurements.....i know not too smart. I would guess that the whole thing (minus the valve refit, as that is the only thing i did not do myself) took a total of 20-24 total hours of work to get from the original to what i now have. I am sure if I did it again i would move much quicker as I now know what needs to be done for much of it. 90% of my work was done with the notion that: "now that it is in pieces, I had better figure out how to put it back together, better"