TubaChristmas decorations

[Chadtuba]

Of those of you that decorate your horns for TubaChristmas (or any other time you decide to decorate) what do you use and how do you attach it to the horn with out fear of damaging the finish? I think I'm gonna take the 28K to the festival this weekend and would love to add some bling to it but I do not want to mar the silver plating on this in any way

As always, thanks for the input.

[SousaSaver]

You can wrap items a certain way around a Sousa to hold themselves in place...

Tape works fine too. Won't hurt the silver, but you might have to clean off a bit of sticky residue. Small price to pay if you ask me. Just don't put it anywhere you can't reach with a cloth.

Battery powered christmas lights are super great for Sousas.

SIDENOTE - I rigged up a Sousaphone at the shop for polishing. This involved rope from the ceiling and a large wooden mandrel. I began work and nature came calling. While away from my station, my co-workers covered my Sousa in tinsel. Very funny guys...

[ken k]

Bloke you need to make a new red and green sousy just for Christmas gigs. then you will have a horn for mardi geras and one for xmas!

[tokuno]

Of those of you that decorate your horns for TubaChristmas (or any other time you decide to decorate) what do you use and how do you attach it to the horn with out fear of damaging the finish? I think I'm gonna take the 28K to the festival this weekend and would love to add some bling to it but I do not want to mar the silver plating on this in any way

As always, thanks for the input.

I bought an inexpensive aluminum/felt door sweep at Home Depot, and folded the ends back so it was a little shorter than the bell's max diameter, then slid it over the bell and hung a lightweight, mylar wreath on it (picked up on the cheap a year prior at an after Christmas clearance). The felt protects the finish, so there's no metal-to-metal contact. Maybe a little structural overkill for just the wreath, but last year I had hung a couple of usb-powered mini spinning red & green lights (think emergency vehicle spinning lights) on it along with the wreath, so needed a sturdy frame.

This year, instead of the spinning lights, I supplemented the wreath with a string of usb-powered LED rice lights whose length coincidentally matches the bell's perimeter. Since I have a length of plastic waterline tubing running around the bell rim to quell bell ring, I tucked the light strand under the tubing to hold it in place, and secured the power line down the bell to my battery (mini rechargeable lithium USB power source good for several hours) with a couple tiny strips of aluminum tape. Had I been more concerned about the silver plate, I'd have used blue easy-release painter's tape, but it's an old beater horn, and the aluminum tape is less noticeable. Also, it was closer at hand, and I was in a hurry.

The local paper ran a picture of last year's caroling. My bell was mostly cropped from the photo, but you can nevertheless see (barely at bell's stage-right edge) the door sweep across the bell.

[imperialbari]

Just get a chameleon multi-color sparkle paint job 4-valve Conn fiberglass sousaphone with metallic green and purple lacquer on the valveset and a glitter-gold lexan mouthpiece.

bloke "nah. That's SILLY. Who would ever do something like that?"

Somebody taking silliness to a professional level?

K

[Rob]

Magnets. You should be able to do it with 1/4 powerful magnets, either one on one side pulling at a washer, or if that's not enough, two magnets. They aren't very expensive and they should easily be able to attract through the brass of a bell. If you need, wrap them with tape, or glue felt on them and you've got an easy on/easy off solution that won't affect your finish or require tape.

There are lots of places you should be able to find them, but I've bought them before from Lee Valley tools, leevalley.com

This link will take you to the rare earth magnets page:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.a ... 2363,42348" target="_blank

Hope this might help even if you might not be able to get them quickly enough right now.

Rob