Rat Story

dtemp · Post by **dtemp** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 5:50 pm

I've heard of this infamous happening. I searched the old TubeNet to no avail. Anyone wanna fill me in?

Joe Baker · Post by **Joe Baker** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 5:57 pm

See the link at Bruce's Sousaphone Haven:
http://www.people.memphis.edu/~jaross/home.html
___________________________
Joe Baker, who could have made the image show up on this page...but didn't.

Captain Sousie · Post by **Captain Sousie** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 7:07 pm

I'll do you one better, there's no image to go with but your imagination can fill in the rest. A teacher that I know of had a student tell him that her saxophone wasn't playing. The teacher took the horn from the kid and tried to play a few notes. Sure enough, the horn wouldn't play. So, the teacher took off the mouthpiece to see what was up and found that the mouthpiece was filled with maggots. The student had never taken the reed off of her mouthpiece or bothered to clean it out.

So,

Sousie

tubaman5150 · Post by **tubaman5150** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 9:25 pm

Joe Baker wrote:See the link at Bruce's Sousaphone Haven:
http://www.people.memphis.edu/~jaross/home.html
___________________________
Joe Baker, who could have made the image show up on this page...but didn't.

To quote Ernest P. Worrell:

"eeeeeewwwwww!"

tubatooter1940 · Post by **tubatooter1940** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 9:32 pm

In eighth grade I played an old sousie that stank from day one.After a few months I took it off the stand and when I rotated it a dead bat fell out.
Oogie!
tubatooter1940

tofu · Post by **tofu** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 12:39 am

Friend tells me about a Eb Buescher Helicon a few years ago. She sees a garage sale ad that lists both a Tuba and Coffin for sale. I go and sure enough beyond the usual garage sale stuff is a helicon and a lovely new yellow casket. He wants $500 for each. The owner claims his grandfather was a band director in Michigan who auditioned for the CSO with the horn in the early 1900's.

The horn is heavily tarnished,dirty and covered with cobwebs etc. from being stored in a barn, but no dents/scratches. I haggle him down to $100, take the horn home and put it in the basement. Few days later I take it to the Brass Bow to do a chemical dip etc. Before I do this I notice a few dead horseflies in the basement which I thought was unusual since I never had these before. I'm driving the 40 miles to the shop and the smell of the horn is just horrible, but I'm thinking it's just the tarnish etc.

Well 2 hours later I get a frantic call from the guys at the shop. When they dip the horn tons of horseflies, maggots and several dead rats come out. The smell is so bad they have to evacuate the shop, open all the windows and dump the chemicals out. They then discover the effect of the dead rats on the metal of the horn - not good.

They still have the horn - I talked to Wayne a few weeks ago. I think they really enjoy telling the story and showing the horn to visiting repair techs. They are supposed to finish it soon.

Don't know how it plays yet. Also don't know if the guy sold the casket or just what he was doing with it in the first place!

Rat Story

Rat Story

Those darn rats!