TubeNet

Maybe this can help:

http://forums.chisham.com/viewtopic.php?p=278843#p278843

BBb: MW 25 & 25E
CC: MW 32

On one front action piston tuba I owned, I cut a piece of a computer wrist rest (actually double thickness, glued together, I think) and used zip ties punched through small holes in it to hold it onto the horn. Did the job.
My current K2001 is extremely ergonomic and needs no assistance. A previous owner of my 181 soldered a quarter to the end of the fifth valve paddle and removed the thumbring, thus making it far more ergonomic as well.
(About a month ago I caught my oldest trying to pull the quarter off!)

Or just wipe this one



clean and place it where you need rest for your hand.

Most Meinl-Weston tubas rotary tubas are designed with the 3rd valve tubing coming up and providing such a support, like on the 2040/5

:

I've been thinking about this subject lately, and have become increasingly aware of tension resulting from managing the bulk of the instrument. On most front-action tubas, the tuba will want to fall over to the left if you let it go, even if you use a stand as I do. The leaning has to be resisted either with the left hand or the right. The brace that Joe designed will not help--the instrument will fall away from the hand that rests on it. And I don't know how a vertical bar provides hand support in any case. I would rather call it a hand rest. (That instrument is a helicon, and in that case the bar is not parallel to gravity and will probably do more--I'm talking about how it translate to a front-action tuba.)

That leaves the left hand to support the tuba (or the right thumb). If the left hand is free to manipulate slides, the right thumb has to do the work, at least when the left hand is moving to a slide or making an adjustment. I find my left hand applying lateral force to the slide quite a lot, and, of course, it doesn't move very well when that's the case.

One of the standard modifications to bassoons, even megabuck instruments bought brand new, is to install a balance bar or some such. I gather that this is a very common method bassoonists use to keep their instrument upright without slowing their fingers down. Why don't the bassoon manufacturers provide it from the factory? I think it's because everybody wants something done a little differently.

I like having the thumb ring, if for not other reason than to give me something to hang my arm on. But I can tell from the 1/8" thick callus on my thumb that it's doing more than that. I'm thinking a bar against which I can rest the side of my left hand, right behind the thumb, which would leave the fingers free to do their thing. But even that's only a partial solution.

Rick "who notices the effects more with age" Denney

Rick Denney wrote:On most front-action tubas, the tuba will want to fall over to the left if you let it go, even if you use a stand as I do.

I actually find I can position my tubas on my Tubassist stand so that they are almost perfectly balanced to require only steadying with no strain. Even the Neptune that way can be held up with literally one finger. I guess this depends a lot on the specific tuba design and angle in the playing positions? Maybe this is another area where rotary tubas require less effort?

I am looking at having a custom thumb ring soldered onto my top action Holton 4v Eb. My right hand starts to cramp up after playing it a while because of the position of the tube at the valves. This tube is part of the main bugle and is intended to be used as a hand rest with the thumb going under it while playing. It is an awkward position and cramps up my right hand. I would like to have 2 or 3 rings soldered together onto where that tube and top bow connect - it would be in a much more ergonomic position. My question is this: can stainless steel rings be soldered onto brass and silver plated brass? Have any of you techs soldered stainless steel to brass? If so, I will have my repairman solder them on the way I want.

Neptune wrote:

Rick Denney wrote:On most front-action tubas, the tuba will want to fall over to the left if you let it go, even if you use a stand as I do.

I actually find I can position my tubas on my Tubassist stand so that they are almost perfectly balanced to require only steadying with no strain. Even the Neptune that way can be held up with literally one finger. I guess this depends a lot on the specific tuba design and angle in the playing positions? Maybe this is another area where rotary tubas require less effort?

I can position both my King 2341 BBb (new, new style) and my Besson 3+1 EEb (old and massively modified) so that a single finger will hold them in place on a BBC stand.

My Conn 36J - not so much. It really wants to be held at an angle, producing the problem Rick speaks of. It doesn't help that recent modifications left it (temporarily) without a thumb ring. I can now pull slides if I need to - but I can't find a way to hold it AND pull slides at the same time.

Last week I had to wrestle Rick's York Master - and was amazed at the difference a stand makes - I didn't have one and I *really* wanted one. Here, my problem was that the setup causes the tuba to want to pitch forward (as opposed to "to the left").