I am excited, the valves should be here tomorrow! I am going to take my time with the project and not rush things, though. The two trickiest parts will be cutting / bending the leadpipe and the dogleg connecting the pistons to what is now the fifth rotor.
LJV wrote:This was a good player to start. If Marty's plan comes together, it will be a BAT of epic proportions! That horn is as big as it looks, too! HUGE!
The sound of this horn is great, a big fat German sound with a little more roundness than a typical Kaiser and no edginess. Low register is as powerful as the middle. It is also a very responsive instrument that does not require a massive effort to start each note, as some large bore tubas can require.
The horn played very well top to bottom, with only one glaring pitch problem - D in the staff was about 40 cents flat 1st valve. 1-3 with the first pushed in put it spot on. With a larger mouthpiece, the horn tended a little flat going into the upper register, but playing off the 9th partial instead of the 8th proved an easy alternative to lipping up the pitches. After I purchased the tuba, careful "tweaking" with a torch, hacksaw, file, and sandpaper brought the overall pitch of the horn up to 440 with any mouthpiece and fixed any overly long valve circuits, so every note was readily in tune. My overall goal now is to keep the length mouthpiece-to-tuning slide the same as before; the four small-piston valves have approximately the same length as the three oversized rotors I removed. Whatever length I shorten the leadpipe to get the right end diameter going into the pistons will be made up in the length of the slightly tapered dogleg connecting the fourth piston to the rotor.
The two biggest issues with the horn were physical - the leadpipe only came about 45 degrees around and the valveset was nearly 100 years old. The tuba was cut sometime in its life, either from a very low pitch CC or most likely a BBb of some pitch standard. A lot of the length was taken out of the leadpipe, but converting to a piston cluster will allow the leadpipe to go in at a much closer location to the player and eliminate the right angle bend at the end. I don't project a 90 degree leadpipe on this horn post-mods, but something in the 65-80 degree range which will still make the instrument much more playable.
The rotors were replated some years ago but have still seen better days. The linkage is worn almost beyond use, although enough of the heaviest Hetmans cuts down on the clatter. I am keeping the best condition valve (#4, no surprise) on the horn and will come up with some kind of hobby-shop linkage once I see exactly how the pistons are going to set.
My only concern with the final project on the horn is its size and girth - very wide horns are typically more accessible in either a rotary or top action configuration. Hopefully having to reach around the instrument will not prove too much of a challenge to my 5'7" frame. (The exact length, angle, and offset of the dogleg will hopefully minimize that). And, that the horn is not "too much tuba" for my real-world playing needs - but who says you can ever have too much tuba?
goodgigs wrote:Marty,
I was looking at the picture and wondering the bell diameter.
Just how big is this big assed rotary tuba ?
I love it when somebody just goes for it.
Good luck !
The tuba barely fits in a 2165 gigbag; it has more overall girth to it than a 2165. The bell is close to 20 inches in diameter and the tuba is about 40 inches tall. This is a very large instrument, however, it is a continuous taper. Part of what makes it play well is that it does not flare too fast too soon. The bottom bow is huge, but the top bow more modest. Some 5/4-6/4 horns with top bows nearly as large as their bottom bows tend to have more issues. Also, the tuba is lightweight for its size, which helps to make it very responsive. However, it does not get brassy or edgy at all when pushed.
