Watery Sound

[buzzmondo]

I've got my tuba and it sounds watery when i play there is no water in the slides and no water when all the water-keys are emptied does anyone have an idea on why it would sound like this?

[Dan Schultz]

I've got my tuba and it sounds watery when i play there is no water in the slides and no water when all the water-keys are emptied does anyone have an idea on why it would sound like this?

Well.... if the horn sounds like it has water in it.... it probably does. Depending of what kind of horn you have.... there are probably several places where water will not drain from by simply opening a waterkey.

Try giving the entire horn two or three 'spins' and see if any more comes out the waterkeys, out the bell, or out the leadpipe. If it still sounds 'watery'... let us know if the entire range sounds that way, or just certain notes or when which valves are pressed.

[buzzmondo]

I've got my tuba and it sounds watery when i play there is no water in the slides and no water when all the water-keys are emptied does anyone have an idea on why it would sound like this?

Well.... if the horn sounds like it has water in it.... it probably does. Depending of what kind of horn you have.... there are probably several places where water will not drain from by simply opening a waterkey.

Try giving the entire horn two or three 'spins' and see if any more comes out the waterkeys, out the bell, or out the leadpipe. If it still sounds 'watery'... let us know if the entire range sounds that way, or just certain notes or when which valves are pressed.

it sounds watery in almost every note above a c in the staff
and only on this tuba when i play on any others it is fine and i have spun it around quite a bit with no water coming out

the horn is a MW Thor 5450

[ghmerrill]

Pull all the slides out. Turn it upside down and see what comes out (and where it comes out). If nothing comes out, spin it with the slides out and see what comes out. Sometimes water will get trapped at the bottom of one of the long runs off the 3rd or 4th valve and it's a bit tricky to get out. Under certain circumstances (usually temperature-related) I get condensation at the bottom bow of my 3rd valve tubing. I can pull the tuning slide and dump it by pointing the bell at the floor, or I can do a funky half spin, half rotation in two planes and get it around the top of the tuning slide and into the valve where it will then drain through the main tuning slide (which is usually what I do).

Also, be sure you're spinning it in the right direction. And depending on where the water is, it may take two or three full rotations to get it to come out the bell.

Every once in a while I think of having a water key put in the problematic case. But the problem doesn't happen all that much, and the spin/rotate move works every time. And there's not much room to put a water key where it's needed. So I haven't done that (yet).

[windshieldbug]

When you spin, spin slowly in the direction of the air going out of the horn.

[bort]

Take the valves out too, it'll give any water from slides a quick and easy way out. Once you find out where the water is hiding, consider installing a water key there.

[PMeuph]

Caveat: This might be controversial, dangerous and overly complicated.

If you own an air compressor with a nozzle that allows you to blow air, use it to to clean the hard to reach places.
Make sure that you take all movable parts off the horn as they could be transformed into projectiles.

Basically:
1. Take the horn apart, including all slides and valves.
2. "Spray" all parts with air.
3. Put the nozzle near the entry of hard to reach places, (ie. Leadpipe, branches, etc...)

Also, How clean is your tuba?

[ghmerrill]

Caveat: This might be controversial, dangerous and overly complicated.

You should also come up with a pretty good and believable (though untrue) story you can tell your repair tech about how the instrument got into the state in which you're delivering it to him. "I was cleaning it outside and this big wind came up, and ..." or "It was in its stand and my wife was vacuuming around it but accidentally put the vacuum hose on the outlet port, and ..."