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One of the guys I know also has a 983 Eb, but it plays about 20 cents sharp because of some work that was done to fix past damage. The repair itself took about an inch and a half between the valve section and the tuning slide. For a quick fix, he is using a sousaphone bit to bring the whole horn down to pitch, but the angle is somewhat odd and makes reading the music problematic, as well as holding and playing the horn itself.

The main slide is out as far as can be with out it falling out and it's still about 20 cents sharp. Is there a straight bit available that could fix this? The other alternative is ordering and installing longer tubing on the main slide, but he can be in for a long wait for the slides to come in.

I was thinking a straight bit about 2" long would be the easiest/fastest/cheapest fix...

Any ideas?

-EDIT-

Thanks for the information everybody, sorry if I was not totally clear before.

With the current (curved) sousaphone bit in and the main slide out almost all the way, the horn is brought down to pitch. However, the possible angles to play the horn with the curved bit in is making the horn awkward to hold.

When I've played the Willson 3400 Eb's in the past (great horns), and I noticed that the leadpipe extended from the bell towards the player quite a bit (maybe and 1 1/2") more than my the Besson 983 Eb's. It seems the body of the Willson Eb is farther from the player's body while playing than the Besson Eb, which is pretty close to my stomach.

I went back to my Besson 983 Eb and held it a few more inches away from my body, and sat the bottom bow a bit further down towards my knees. It wasn't bad, just different than what I'm currently used to, so it could work (in theory)...

I don't suppose anybody has both horns next to them at the moment and could chime in..?

No bit will solve the pitch problem without causing an odd playing position. The true fix is about replacing the damaged parts and getting the main tuning slide back in place.

Klaus

If the main slide is all the way out and the horn is still 20 cents sharp, it's not likely a tuning bit will fix the problem. I agree with Klaus... revert back to fixing the main tuning slide. Simply changing the inner slide tubes to longer ones would be a better fix.

I might be able to make something like that. Contact me if you want to try it. I don't have any idea how well it would work though.

I've taken to using an angled bit on my 983 as needed. Although I don't have such a dramatic sharpness issue, the main tuning slide is so short that if the group pitches low (sometimes the case when we're working with an older pipe organ) I don't have much tubing to grip down there, and risk blowing out the slide. Did it often enough that I tied a ribbon to the slide and brace so it wouldn't hit the floor.