What is Cutting a tuba?

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tbonesullivan
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Re: What is Cutting a tuba?

Post by tbonesullivan »

That is interesting, but probably rather common in the industry. I wonder how many CC conversions Rusk did. The cut down yorks I have seen were all by him, except for one by Bob Schelp, which is at Dillon Music right now.

It is a shame that all the brass they trimmed off was discarded. Lately there have been a lot of people analyzing brass from older instruments to see the composition, and how things have changed.
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roweenie
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Re: What is Cutting a tuba?

Post by roweenie »

happyroman wrote: He also said that the mandrels at the York factory were made for BBb tubas (it was likely too expensive to have two sets, one in each key), and in order to produce a CC tuba, they used the BBb mandrels and cut it to CC.
I'd be curious to know where Mr. Rusk learned this information, but now that he's gone, unless he quoted a source somewhere, we may never know.

My theory (which may very likely jibe with Mr. Rusk's story) is that I suspect York used BB flat high-pitch top-action (early, pre-1910) tuba mandrels to build their CC tubas. This would result in minimal (if no) cutting required.

The CC horn I built that I referenced earlier in this thread was a product of just this.

These high pitch horns are frequently "cut" to CC to this day, as they are a relatively easy conversion. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the CB-50 tuba is copied from one of those conversions.
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The Big Ben
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Re: What is Cutting a tuba?

Post by The Big Ben »

roweenie wrote:
happyroman wrote: He also said that the mandrels at the York factory were made for BBb tubas (it was likely too expensive to have two sets, one in each key), and in order to produce a CC tuba, they used the BBb mandrels and cut it to CC.
I'd be curious to know where Mr. Rusk learned this information, but now that he's gone, unless he quoted a source somewhere, we may never know.

My theory (which may very likely jibe with Mr. Rusk's story) is that I suspect York used BB flat high-pitch top-action (early, pre-1910) tuba mandrels to build their CC tubas. This would result in minimal (if no) cutting required.

The CC horn I built that I referenced earlier in this thread was a product of just this.

These high pitch horns are frequently "cut" to CC to this day, as they are a relatively easy conversion. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the CB-50 tuba is copied from one of those conversions.
Here is a youtube video of a interview with Mr. Rusk where he discusses York tubas, York's construction methods and how he went about creating the cut tuba. There is another video in the series where Mr. Rusk is interviewed about Arnold Jacobs.

https://youtu.be/TE6E2Ne_D5k" target="_blank
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roweenie
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Re: What is Cutting a tuba?

Post by roweenie »

That's a very interesting video - thank you for sharing it!

I think I need to be a little more clear in what I was saying earlier - my theory didn't apply to the "two-off" 6/4 "Chicago" Yorks (which, I gather from that interview, Mr. Rusk was referring to), but specifically to the remaining "ten-off" 4/4 CC Yorks, and how they might have been made.

I'm basing my assumption on the practical possibility that York would use existing, no-longer-useful high pitch BB flat mandrels to build a 4/4 tuba pitched in CC, rather than fabricating new mandrels for that purpose, or using low pitch mandrels, only to then cut two feet out of its taper.
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Re: What is Cutting a tuba?

Post by Slamson »

I have to agree that for the most part cutting a tuba is a risky, and seldom profitable thing to do. On the other hand, my old teacher, Art Hicks had a Cerveny BB-flat with string valves cut to a CC and it was really great. But then, I think it was Cliff Blackburn who did the cutting.

I'm surprised that Lee Stopfer hasn't chimed in on this thread! He lives for this stuff!!!!!
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Re: What is Cutting a tuba?

Post by joh_tuba »

Any guess what Mr. Rusk said was the reason Jacobs never bought an HB-50 that they had to bleep out at the 18:30 mark?
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