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Bloke brought up an idea worth consideration.....


"Re: New Kanstul 5/4 Grand CC and BBb tubas

by bloke » Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:43 am

very nice pictures.

I see a detachable bell...not the solder joint in the middle of the bell, but down at the connection to the bottom bow.

bloke "Any time you have something huge and heavy to buff, anything that is detachable is a blessing."

blokeTubeNet Sponsor
Posts: 21834Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 6:04 pmLocation: western Tennessee"

It really would not be difficult to do. The bottom bell collar becomes a receiver like any other detachable bell model and where most have a big brace to the body, a lockable receiver takes its place. The leadpiipe would also "need" to be detachable.

A potential BIG plus would be that cases could be built to hold the bell seperately so that in an impact situation the weight of the rest of the horn isn't forcing a collapse of the bell rim. I have seen more than 1 example of flight cases failing to protect the bell as there was so much leveraged weight exerting damaging forces on the bell rim. This could be done in 1 or two cases.

When I get to putting my little Martin Eb together I just might do this as I plan to make the leadpipe detachable anyway and when packing it to ship out here it was pretty easy to pack it up so that a really major mishap, enough to crush the box, would have been needed in order to damage anything. The bell was off and I had about 1& 2/3 Martin Eb and the detachable bell for the King in 1 box which was probably smaller than would have been required to ship just 1 Martin. Thanks go to Lee Stofer for the packing job!

Potential for a lot of plusses here...........

Detachable bell tubas are damned underrated. I couldn't do all the gigs I do if I didn't have a detachable bell so I can go upright or recording as the gig/venue requires.

Jupiter and some others have detachable valve blocks, and that's a start. I need a tuba that has all the above: detachable valve block for maintenance and detachable bells for different gigs: 16 1/2 inch "stovepipe" for orchestra/"symphonic" band; 18" wide flare (think: current Miraphone 186 or King 1241 -- the tuba equivalent of a Bach 37 trumpet bell) for "Americana" (community band, "trad jazz," etc.) gigs; and 22 inch recording for those gigs that simply must be projected off a detrimental (acoustically) stage or outdoors.

Modular instruments are more and more common in the trumpet and trombone world. Next to the afore mentioned advantages, Blokes idea would open the door to the possibility of experimenting with different "body parts".

Learning a new horn in ones playing environment takes time. Many of us know the feeling of playing a new horn and realizing that maybe just a little less of "this" and a little more of "that" would have made life easier.

Different size bell flairs and throats. Or different metals. Front bells for those who want or need them. And exchangeable leadpipe sizes. Right tool for the right job.

Now if we could get a rotatable leadpipe system on tubas that could be a great advantage in comfort. A lot of us have had our leadpipe positions changed on a well loved tuba so as to fit the tuba to our body better.

All leadpipes are in a sort of "L" form. Once rotated a smidgen at the valve section the difference (higher or lower) at the players position (mpc receiver) is much greater. A rotatable leadpipe that wouldn't leak (obstacle #1) with an adjustable mpc receiver to bell brace (obstacle #2) which wouldn't put tension on the leadpipe itself (obstacle #3) is something I think tubists would appreciate.

OK, a lot of obstacles, but if we can put a man on the moon...etc...etc...

-Pat

Kanstul makes 2-piece tubas for a very practical reason:

their plating tanks are not large enough to hold a 5/4 horn.

I actually started on a baritone in beginner band, but I guess from the choices and wording offered, that doesn't count as a "real" instrument, then or now.

alfredr, but then I'm not a "real" player either.

pjv wrote:
OK, a lot of obstacles, but if we can put a man on the moon...etc...etc...

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If only we could! We "useta could" -- 40 years ago (the production lines were actually shut down 44 years ago) -- but, once we knew it worked, we threw it away ("paper cup syndrome"). Haven't been able to since; hope we recover from that condition soon.
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