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You didn't specify in your post, but I will assume for now it is the Sanders F you are struggling with? Custom Music put the Sanders nameplate prinmarily on Cerveny CC and BBb tubas, but I recall that their literature at the time talked about Johann Sanders-Scherzer, and some of the Sanders (Scherzer) tubas came from Germany. If you can give more info about the origin and specifications, it may help. My first inclination is to say it's the tuba, and it may just take a while for you to either make the needed adjustments or sell it.

It is always the darkest before dawn. You will make this breakthrough soon regardless what anybody tells you at this point, because you are steadily working for a solution to the problem. Be patient, the solution is on its way, in a way that you are probably not expecting.

You are speaking of many physical attempts at correcting the problem. I would recommend trying to focus on the end product that you are after. You are probably aware of that, but I have no idea who you are; I am just hearing physical maneuvers that you are trying that are not working. You are going to lock into the solution not being conscious of what has changed, just that the change has produced the desired result. Be open to this. This is how it has always happened for me in solving a problem with my playing.

Good luck, keep listening.

I would recommend that you have someone else or perhaps your teacher play the horn to see if they encounter similar effort to accomplish things in the high register. I have encountered some horns tht flat out just don't want to cooperate and you have to learn what they like to get them to work for you. It's a relationship thing - the more you know them the more you love them.

Good luck. Let me know if I can help out in some way.

Best wishes to all for a safe and happy holiday weekend.

Roger

pauvog1 wrote:This one has made in west germany stamped on the bell, it has 5 rotars 4+1 configuration, 15in bell, I was told by Neal Campbell @ custom music it was a .750 bore. Maybe it is the horn, but I think for now I going to try to adjust to it as I do not have the want nor means to go on the tuba hunt again. Especially since the low range is on autopilot now, and it is a really nice sounding horn in the other registers; I really do like it a lot as well . I got it from custom music. Neal told me that it was made before the Berlin Wall fell, most likely in the meinl weston factory. It has been extremely well cared for and looks almost brand new it is wild when considering it is older than I am.

I think I remember that horn. It sat in the Tuba House for years. It had a beautiful, singing tone, with a few quirks. The reason it never sold is that Fred, as soon as he sensed any degree of interest from a potential buyer, would instantly start talking about what a great tuba it was, in a league with Rudys and B&S, and start jacking the price up accordingly. The buyer always went for the Perantuicci tubas once the price got high enough. It was a nice tuba, though, and I'm glad it found a good home. Keep at it. You will de-quirk it soon enough.

Are the valves perfectly aligned?

Have you run a bass trombone snake through the leadpipe and through the slides including the main tuning?

Klaus

Glad you experienced some improvement!

The logic behind my suggestions is about where the first nodes of the higher partials are placed. These points should optimally not be obstructed in a well designed instrument. There are urban, maybe even rural, legends about dents improving response, intonation, or sound. I don’t invite dents, they just happen anyway.

The valve alignment is important in open as well as in engaged positions. The open position alignment potentially affects all notes, which don’t have that given valve engaged. The implication thereof is that the open-position alignment of the 5th valve (I assume it sits first in the valve block) may be critical for several high register notes, even if you don’t use that valve at all while playing in the actual problem register.

The alignment of the engaged-position potentially affects all notes, which have the given valve engaged.

For technical/agility reasons trombonists better be fully aware about alternative (that is longer) slide positions. The same approach is not too common on players only raised on valve instruments. You may experiment with alternative fingerings in the problem range. The only guarantee I can issue, is that your embouchure gets exhausted, if you get hooked on this experiment. You may not immediately come to a solution of your problem, but you are almost bound to end up wiser and with a better sense of your instrument.

Klaus

pauvog1 wrote:. . . I've finally come to realize that I have to use a completely different emboucure for my F tuba than I do for C tuba. . .

hmm. . .