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bairdo wrote:Well i'm not going to share the details of my complete and utter stupididty but does anyone have any idea how to get a pop bottle out of a tuba. Someone told me to fill it up with water and blow hard but it didn't seem to work. I'm sure if i took it in for repairs they could take off the elbow and get it out but I don't really want that to happen as im short of cash. Any advice would be amazing.

Take out the main tuning slide (assuming the tuning slide is after the valves) and insert some large lead weights into the horn. Let the weights slide toward the stuck object, and then start a sliding and ramming action until the weights loosen the object.

You can get fishing weights or go to the hardware store and get bolt anchors, which are lead sleeves for holding bolts to concrete.

Throw in some chips, and wait for nature to take it's course...

Using a hose might work with all the water pressure...

Way to go, bairdo, you solved that problem.
A word to the tuba dads here on tubenet:
When you stuff the babies down your bell for that great photo-op try not to get 'em stuck down there. Same goes for other small animals!
Gerbils?
As Willie Nelson might say," Mommas don't let your babies get stuck down no tubas".

Congrats on removing the bottle.
Reminds me of a couple of weeks ago, a young baritone student of mine came into his lesson and told me his horn didn't work. I blew a few notes, and it was really "stuffy", obviously something stuck in the horn. I told him I thought there might be something in it, knowing that these things happen sometimes, and he goes: "Yeah, my superball bounced into the bell"! Fortunately, he keeps his cleaning snake in his case, so we were able to remove the main slide and ram it out.
MF