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Recently I brought my horn in from my car. It was extremely cold in my car and the temperature difference when I started playing was so great the lead pipe solder joints literally just "popped". The lead pipe bent away from the horn considerably.

I gently put the mouthpiece in the horn anyways and continued playing. To my surprise the horn played completely different, IN A GREAT WAY. The difference was amazing.

I took the horn in to get it fixed (Dennis Pollard) and asked that he keep the leadpipe away from the bell for the repair. The result was this one solder joint, replacing two, and keeping the good qualities of the damage intact.



A lot of the Besson 983's have the leadpipe soldered two the bell in two places. Just past the reciever and then in the middle section of the leadpipe (directly to the front of the bell). These solder lines can be anywhere from 5 inches to 9+. One horn I have seen actually had the leadpipe soldered on (from the factory) almost the entire length of the leadpipe around the bell! By moving the mouthpiece a little lower Dennis was able to keep the leadpipe away from the horn the entire distance, except the beginning (done at the reciever upstream of the mouthpiece shank "gap"). I never imagined that solder line would hamper this horn so much.



By moving the leadpipe directly down by about an inch, plenty of room was given around the bell to keep the leadpipe off of it. This mod is ergonomic for most players because Patrick Sheridan is so large and the shank is very high. It is very similar to a mod I have seen the guys at BAC Brass in Kansas City do to several of the Besson 983 they have had in house.


It really got me to thinking.... Has anyone else seen any small horn changes that make big differences in how the horn played? I've heard stories of a big dent in a horn changing the tuning of certain partials for the better (node alteration).

Wow, that's a good story. My Willson leadpipe is soldered to the bell for a few inches. Makes me wonder if this will make a difference on my horn. Since it's only 2 months old and plays amazing just as it is, I think I'll wait about 10 years before breaking the leadpipe off (just kidding) But i'll see what the future holds, ya never know. This might make a big difference on any horn.

Congratulations and condolenses for entering the world of tuba modification and customization (the hard way)!

I just posted some pictures of mods we did to my brand spankin new 6450/2. Biggest improvements were bending the leadpipe to MY facial structure, taking it off the bell (this lit the horn up like you can't imagine!), cutting down the notoriously flat 5th valve, and making custom slide pull rings exactly where I need them. Oh yeah, and Saturn water keys where the tuba actually builds up moisture!

I don't subscribe to the idea that tubas are one size fits all. I'd rather not fight ergonomic issues on a tuba, and potentially take away from energy I could be spending to make music!

It's a slippery slope, but if you know when to stop you're likely to be safe!

My perception has long been that off the bell improves the response and on my recently ordered custom B&S PT-20 specified a detachable leadpipe largely for this reason. I wonder why professional models do not have the leadpipe off the bell as standard?

I can see that soldered direct to bell is more durable to rough handling, so may be better for student models used in schools?

Be careful about assigning cause and effect here. The fact that the leadpipe popped away from the bell when the brace let loose tells me that it had not been particularly well-fitted in the first place, and was flexed into place and soldered down. That would leave quite a bit of residual stress both in the leadpipe and in the bell. I would not be surprised if relieving the residual stress had the effect you observe, rather than just lifting the leadpipe from the bell.

I've played instruments with and without a lifted leadpipe that had the opposite effect one might expect--the most recent example was in comparing the prototype Petruschka (lifted) from the production version (not lifted), where the response of the latter might even be a bit better than the former.

Rick "effect in search of a cause" Denney

I'll second Rick (sorta...).

I've never been a proponent of pulling the leadpipe away from the bell. In fact two tuba's I've had which had been modified that way I put them BACK on.

Tention in the pipe is a minor factor, IMHO. But what does FEEL good is when the leadpipe is off the bell, two things happen... the instrument seems to speek more easily and instantly, and the bell seems more resonant. Both are kinda true, but both of these things mean the instrument is losing energy.

Any energy which makes the bell and leadpipe vibrate has to come from somewhere, and it is - from your buzz. When you can instead lay that leadpipe across the bell, you transfer more of that energy where it belongs - sound.

There is an extreme here too... high mass mouthpieces (Jet-tone Helleburg?) may go so far that the darn horn can't come to life at all to add a little color to the fundamental pitch, same with mouthpiece tone rings. But when you get the right balance, your can have a hell of an instrument.

J.c.S. (who "fixed" his 52J, Alex 163 and 164 and others...).

Agreed with all the above. But to answer the topic: a little mod -- converting the top loop of the 1st valve circuit of a Conn souzy from fixed to being a movable left-hand slide; a big difference: a souzy that can play perfectly in tune in all registers.

I have a situation similar to this. When I had my 186 overhauled my tech told me that he wasn't going to solder my lead pipe all the way to my bell this time because he was afraid it would buckle(it was the original lead pipe) and it concerned me. But now that I've played it for a couple of weeks it feels like the horn responds much better than it used to. This may have something to do with resonance issues and such but whatever it is, I'm glad he did it!