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PORKCHOP wrote:this may have been asked before but is it harmful to leave a tuba in a car all day, heatwise I mean? Cause I had to leave my tuba in the car today...and i just checked it and it's hot....not too hot to touch but it is still very hot....let me know. Thanks

The high temperature might help to kill off some of the cooties in the slides. On the other hand, high temperature could turn the horn into a Petri dish. I don't know for sure, but one of the forum's genii probably will opine.

High temperature will cause valve oil's volatile components to quickly evaporate.

Seriously though, I worry about theft so much that I don't leave a tuba in my car unless I'm staying only a few hours at an attended parking lot or garage, and never on a routine basis.

Nothing to prove it, either, but I don't think the solder problem would be it melting. I'd worry more about the expansion rates of dissimilar metals, and the solder deteriorating (not melting) because of it...

It is almost impossible to avoid environmental temperature changes when travelling with a tuba. I think the real danger would be a very RAPID change in temperature. Maybe, leaving your horn in the desert sun for 8 hours and then immediately putting it into the meat locker at your local supermarket, or hosing it down with liquid nitrogen or something.

Slow changes are probably not an issue. Hell, some businesses offer it as a service. Maybe cold-climate players can do their own cryogenics! I understand the professional service takes quite some time, and gets a lot further from room temp than normal ambient conditions.

You might want to keep it out of direct sunlight also, which may help to disguise it and keep undue interest in your tuba to a minimum while you are not with it.

Just be glad you don't play an instrument made out of wood.

I don't know about the tuba, but if you use a conventional mouthpiece, make sure you keep it with you so you don't burn or freeze your chops when you pull it out to buzz, warmup and play.

Dean E wrote: Hi temperature will cause valve oil's volatile components to quickly evaporate.

True, that is one of the reasons I have switched to synthetic. Something like Hetman will stay on long after Al Cass has evaporated.

Interestingly enough, my MW2145 would sometimes have problems with the valves being sluggish, and if I left it in my trunk overnight (in the winter) they worked better the next day. Of course I would have to wait for the spi..condensation to melt before I could blow freely through it.

Switching to Hetman #1 and cleaning the pistons frequently was a better way to go.

The first thing I would recommend to anyone traveling with a tuba is GET A CASE! Or a gig bag at least. That's what I do with my sousaphone, put it in a huge looking bookbag and place it behind my back like I'm hiking or at school. Spending a couple hundred dollars is worth the investment for a case or bag since it helps protect your horn from the elements and possible thieves.

Now obviously, not every tuba can fit inside every car. That's why I would also suggest that if you can, get a truck or SUV. I have an Olds Cutlass Ciera and Buick Park Ave. I can't put my sousa inside the trunk of the Olds and instead have to put in the backseat. The horn though can fit inside the trunk of the Buick with some room to spare. If you have a tiny car, like a Yugo or VW Beetle, well then you'd want to consider upgrading your transportation.

Like they say with gifts or anything you get at the store, put it inside the trunk if you can so that nobody can possibly steal it.

Hank74

I live in a place where the heat can get up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade during summer. Other than a knowing thief, who knows that a tuba is a valuable musical instrument, the only danger, I see, is that the tuba gets as hot as a Styrofoam cup of coffee from a McDonald's drive thru window. I let it cool down 30 minutes before attempting to play it.

BassClef wrote:My wife's car was broken into the week before our wedding. She had her wedding dress, her flute, and her piccolo in the back seat. They only took the stereo

... and with the car open, when she came back, wouldn't you know it, there were 14 flutes and 37 piccolos in the back seat...

[quote="Jonathantuba"]I have never had any problems with heat leaving a tuba in my car.
I see you live in England where a tiny window or two gives sufficient ventilation for a good sized house with no air conditioning.
Down here in the sunny South we never buy a dark colored car because parking in the sunlight can raise interior temperature to 150 degrees F.
If your tuba was in there you could fry an egg on it.
Most would find South Alabama too hot but there are compensations.
Women around here don't wear much and bikini season is 8 months long.

I have been known to take the comforter off my bed, fold it in half and place it over the tuba. It acts as a heat shield.

Jonathantuba wrote:I therefore drive a saloon and put the tuba in the boot/trunk out of sight in case I stop on route for a drink, etc..

If you are driving a saloon, why do you need to stop for a drink?

A saloon has a bonnet in front and a boot in the rear. It has four tyres with a spare in the boot. You look through a windscreen.

American translation:

A sedan has a hood in front and a trunk in the rear. It has four tires with a spare in the trunk. You look through a windshield.

I am sorry! My English is a bit rusty.

LoyalTubist wrote:A saloon has a bonnet in front and a boot in the rear. It has four tyres with a spare in the boot. You look through a windscreen.

American translation:

A sedan has a hood in front and a trunk in the rear. It has four tires with a spare in the trunk. You look through a windshield.

I know, I just couldn't resist.

I'm waiting to see what people do with my translation!

learnt = learned

No, I sound funny. I have lived in so many places my accent has picked up everything from everywhere.

I lived on the island of Guam from 1997-99. They have a peculiar way to say the word for U.S. 25 cent coin, quarter.

They say, "Quatter."

So do I.

Jonathantuba wrote:I must sometime sound funny to you fellows! Well never mind

This BBS mind? Surely you must be joking...
Don't call me Shirley!

I think the reason that tubas and wedding dresses and flutes and the like get stolen less often than radios is that people cant get rid of them as quickly and easily. Plus they can be found more easily, and people often want to find them more than they want to find their stereo. I think we worry a little too much about our instruments.

If someone wants something bad enough, they will take it, no matter where it is located. Its just that radios offer a quick and sure payback with little risk of being caught.

bloke wrote:Extreme heat might (??) take a long term toll on nitrocellulose (non-epoxy type) lacquer...I can't think of anything else on a tuba that it would really hurt.

Heat did ruin the lacquer on my old Olds trombone during my first (and only) high school band camp. It sat there in the grass while we were learning drill, and when I came to pick it up, I thought it had gotten wet... but the lacquer had literally melted. It looked really "cool" after that.

If you do need to carry your tuba in your car, and you can't park it somewhere secure, I'll suggest that it be hidden entirely, preferably in a trunk or some equivalent. The thieves that took mine out of my Civic unloaded it at a pawn shop fairly quickly and got their 500 bucks. Less than a tenth of what everything was worth, but that'll buy a lot of rocks of crack.

I figured that they pawned it quickly -- and in another county -- because the shop's policy was to let items sit for a month before putting them on eBay. When my horn was discovered on eBay by some of our fellow Tubenetters, it was just past the one-month mark.

Olds was not known for good lacquer. I even believe one of their older catalogs said something to the effect there was no warranty on the lacquer, it was just to get the horn from the factory to the store.

Speaking of stolen instruments, please read my signature.

Oh, yeah -- transliteration: English saloon = American sports sedan, as in the Jaguar S-type 4-door with the rounded nose, er, bonnet.

boot = trunk
bonnet = hood
hood = convertible top
spanner = wrench
petrol = gasoline
estate = station wagon
roadster = convertible, but one completely open without a foldable top, and has an optional hard top that latches on
tyres = tires
headlamps = headlights

There are more, I just can't think of them right now. It comes from having owned two Jaguars, and doing your own work off real factory facsimile reprint manuals. My 1986 XJ6 , in a wonderful cherry-chocolate brown with tan leather, had the rear seat wiring done in the afternoon - the right switch worked the left window and vice versa. I finally had to sell that one from just too much repairs from obviously having been parked outside for most of its life. I still have my 1967 E-type with its 3 SU carburettors (English spelling - 2 t's) and covered headlamps, and it had the bonnet put on in the afternoon, because after my headlamps seemed to be working funny, I realized that a right-hand drive set of headlamps had been installed instead of left-hand drive: on brights, the left beam projected and the right beam spread, instead of the other way around. Why do I say afternoon? Because I've been to Coventry, and toured the factory. At lunch, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, from the chairman of the board down to the person who sweeps up, has at least one pint with lunch, if not two (or more?) at the factory pub on the grounds. So much for the tight-!!! American "no alcohol at work" rules! Now you know the real reason for Jaguar "quality control," or the lack thereof.