Adjusting mouthpiece/tuba height?

[scottw]

I wholeheartedly agree with BBb Tubaman---the K&M stand is worth every penny. Saves your body as you sit a lot more comfortably on a chair, and have no fear the horn will decide to slip off your lap or off the edge of the chair at exactly the wrong time!

[Art Hovey]

You might consider something like this:

http://www.geocities.com/galvanized.geo ... pport.html

I have been using it for about 3 years now and still like it.

[Philip Jensen]

Hey Nathan - we play the same horn. Check out my Avatar, and check out:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/p/j ... gtuba.html

I noticed the angles of our leadpipes are different, mine being much higher. I've been told my leadpipe is likely not original. However, there are no solder marks that would indicate the original was anywhere but in the same place. I'm lucky, at 6' I can simply rest the tuba on the chair (with a thin non-slip padding)

The problem I've had with blocks, etc and other jerry-rigs is that they slip around too much. I REALLY like the foam pad I use. I got it at a craft store. I've seen it at Michaels and JoAnn Fabric. Two sizes, 8X11, and a bigger one, both 3/32" thick. I simply sit on it and the horn only moves when I want it too. I don't even notice the pad is there.

I'd make a wood block, not too big, not too small and cover it top and bottom with this foam. Maybe the sides too! Also I'd use the lightest wood I could find - easier to carry around and more comfortable too.

I also used this same foam to make an arm guard for the bottom of the bell stack. I made a paper pattern with a 3/4" overlap at the seam, cut the foam to match then put on some sticky back velcro strips. I quickly discovered the velro stuck better to itself than the foam. I solved that problem by hand sewing the velcro strip on after sticking them where I wanted (a thimble of some kind is required for sewing - the velcro is tough. And the sticky stuff can gunk up your needle and thread). One nice thing about the foam is that it stretchs a bit so it can fit quite snug and it doesn't look sloppy. It doesn't budge. And with the velro, I can easily take it off to dry after a sweaty summer gig.

I'll try and take some pictures if anyone is interested

[Z-Tuba Dude]

You might try rubberized shelf lining cloth (I bought some at Target). Mine is a open weave cloth, covered with a thin layer of spongy foam. If you lay it on your lap, it keeps the horn from sliding.

I only seem to have the problem when I am wearing my tux pants (wool). The pants that I wear for rehearsals, must be less slippery!

[Joe Baker]

email me with answers to the questions. It is easier to do this if I was there and even seeing how u are holding it. Even a side picture of you holding and playing your tuba would help.

There's an older picture of me with the tuba on this page.

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ringostarr/interests.html

You would be a good candidate for some of the non-slip shelf-paper/drawer-liner stuff. If you're not familiar with it, it is a rubbery mesh fabric that you can get in the dishes area at walmart, in the tool-chest area at Home Depot - I found a roll for a buck at the local dollar store. You unroll a piece of this across your lap, and it will grip both the tuba and your legs (it will slide on SOME pants). I actually attached some of this directly to the bottom bow of my 10J with electrical tape, and it works great. That might have a detrimental effect on the sound of the horn in some cases, though, so buyer beware. This stuff hasn't worked out for everyone, but it's cheap to try.

I also remember someone mentioning using a stack of hockey pucks on the corner of the chair. They're rubbery, so they grip each other, and you can add or subtract about an inch at a time. There's another relatively low-cost possibility.

Good luck.
______________________________
Joe Baker, who has been struggling with a bell-front Holton 345 in preparation for an upcoming outdoor concert, but refuses to spend $$$ on a stand for a borrowed tuba.

[ken k]

Hello nathan, I would recommend the Stewart Stand also. I have one one my horn. Actually I had a repairman friend mount mine directly on the horn, so it is more or less permanent. It make playing the horn so much easier since you do not even have to think about holding the horn anymore. It just stays in place. It doesn't matter what kind of chair you sit on or anything, since it is adjustalble. So if the chair has a bit of an angle or something to it you can make those fine adjustments.

If you want some more info, email me. I live near Oley PA which is only about 45 minutes from Pottsville. (I too am a Phillies phan, unfortunately) The man who mounted the stand on my horn is in Boyertown also in Berks County. I can also send you a picture of my horn if you like.

Another idea I used before I got the stewart Stand was two of those black rubber drum muffling pads. Have you ever seen those black rubber disks that drummers use to silence the drum? The are 14" in diamter and thin around the edge, but the middle is about a inch thick. I would use two of them stacked on top of one another. I would put it on the chair and sit on it with the thick part between my legs and then rest the tuba on it. Since the pad is rubber it would stick to the horn a little and the horn would not slide around at all, not even on a chair with a small seat. The problem with your set up may be that your horn is very low (4") so the pads may not be thick enough to help.

One probelm with these pads or a pillow or the other little tuba stnads is that you have something else you have to carry aroudn with you. The stewart stand is on the horn so you don't have to think about it. It is just there when you need it.

kckemmerer@aol.com

ken k

[IkeH]

I made the mistake on my last horn of having the leadpipe raised to meet my face sitting in a normal position. The problem comes when you sit in a really puffy upholstered chair(like at our church every week) and then you have to sit up unnaturally straight to reach the mpc. The worst was when I had to sit sith a trombone section to read off of a big band music stand. No way! Now I have a little piggy that sits comfortably on the lap in any situation.

[smurphius]

we tuba folk in my school use this rubber like cloth, somewhat to the equivalent to a cheap table mat, which is cut to fit an area of about 6 inches on the bottom corner of the tuba. we just tie them straight on to the tuba at the point in which we want the side of the horn to rest on our legs. this way you don't have to have a stand, but have something which has enough friction to hold the horn up. you can just adjust it downward until it brings the mouthpiece to the right height.

[Bandmaster]

Back when I was in college, I made a block out of cork. I just glued layers together until it was thick enough to raise the horn to where I needed it. You can even do a final cut to make it have two dimentions (rectangle), one thicker than the other, so you can have a choice of heights. The cork surface grips both the chair and the horn very well. I am 6'6" so I really needed it. Only I was thinner in college and still had room on the chair to set the block. That doesn't work 30 years later, so I recently bought a DEG stand and so far it seems to work just fine. Even on my big old Holton.

[TubaRay]

You know, Dave, I have also noticed that modern chairs have less space than they used to. Maybe we should talk the manufacturers.

[Mark]

I then bought a little foot stool that guitar players use. I placed it under my left foot and never looked back.

With the Pat Sheridan/Steven Mead master class still fresh in my mind, I'd have to say that neither of them would approve of this. They both strongly emphasized good posture and the stool is definitely not going to give you good posture.

Sheridan said that the standard Wenger chair used by lots of bands and orchestras was absolutely no good for anyone over 5'11". He was adamant that your hips should be higher than your knees when playing.

[CJ Krause]

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[Dan Schultz]

Well.... I've tried just about everything such as wood blocks, phone books, stands, and what-have-you. The only real way to fix the problem, IN MY OPINION, is to customize the mouthpipe. I moved the mouthpipe on my Carl Wunderlich down a full three inches a couple of months ago simply because I think (again... just my opinion) that the horn belongs on your lap. However, I DID overlook the fact that my Meinl-Weston harness had to be changed accordingly! Making the necessary adjustments to the harness 'on the fly' made for a very interesting first couple of tunes at the first stand-up gig after the mouthpipe move!

[CJ Krause]

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[Rob Wilson]

I relate to the players with not enough room on the chair. I play a Willson 3400 that fits me just fine when I rest the horn on a chair. I purchased a K&M stand for when I play community & church events. They always seem to have those cheep (small) metal chairs for the musicians to use. My practice room is equipped with a good (deep) office chair that I have taken the back off so that I can rest my horn right on the padded chair. Considering that I spend much more time practicing than performing, I now have the best of both worlds. I play with good posture and my horn is protected. Yes, the K&M is expensive but not as much as a chiropractor or doctor when you have messed up your back from struggling with a heavy tuba. When the tuba rest on our legs it creates tension and this can negatively affect the sound. Not to mention the comfort. I cannot imagine a long practice session (1.5 to 3 hours) with a 21 pound instrument resting on my legs. Best of luck to all that struggle in this area, each of us will arrive to the best solution(s) for our playing situation(s).