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...is it pretty much dead? Is there any reason to believe it will be okay after just this one patch, or is it doomed to become more patch than tuba?

There are a handful of tempting, inexpensive Holton 345's with this one red flag. These seem to be well-cared for and patched due to corrosion, not physical trauma.

In my opinion... patches due to trauma are more acceptable than those due to rot or brickelyness. In the case of the latter... more patches are to come.

That being said... I have no problem with small patches that are well done. The thing that 'kills' a horn are large patches with heavy amounts of solder under them.

The nearly hundred-year-old bell on my tuba is paper thin. There are several patches on it, and I expect it will eventually need several more as it is heavily used. The bell still has too much resonance without any alterations, and I use split plastic tubing around the rim to limit sympathetic vibration. I may eventually add some half-round brass strips to further limit unwanted vibration. There is always the belt-around-the-bell trick.

bloke wrote:"no leaks" (including mechanical parts) = "a tuba"...at least "for now".

Cars without bondo-repaired wreck-damage and rust tend to sell for more (yes?) than cars with these types of repairs...unless (as sometimes is the case with musical instruments) these sorts of repairs are well-cloaked.

Almost all restored cars have an amount of bondo or lead in them. One of the standards of that industry is "no more than 1/16" thick". I know of restorers who have been contracted to restore cars such as Austin-Healey 3000s and Jaguar Mark IIs who are amazed when they find out how much lead filler was used by the factory to make the finish acceptable. If a car has rust at the bottom of a quarter panel and some wire mesh is applied to backside of the hole and then is covered with a combination of bondo and fiberglass, I'd call that unacceptable unless that is the only repair the customer can afford or that the repairer knows how to do. The proper repair would be to cut out the panel and weld/braze a new piece in. With modern MIG/TIG welding machines and the availability of patch panels, it might actually be cheaper to do it the right way.

I've played many "well-used" old tubas that play far better than (suspiciously-underused) "factory-fresh" old tubas.

Well, sure. But can a tuba be shiny on the outside and bad on the inside? Do Holtons ever crumble from the inside out like a beached whale?

The Big Ben wrote:

bloke wrote:"no leaks" (including mechanical parts) = "a tuba"...at least "for now".

Cars without bondo-repaired wreck-damage and rust tend to sell for more (yes?) than cars with these types of repairs...unless (as sometimes is the case with musical instruments) these sorts of repairs are well-cloaked.

Almost all restored cars have an amount of bondo or lead in them. One of the standards of that industry is "no more than 1/16" thick".

I'm feeling what you think qualifies as restored and what I know are vastly different. What you are talking about is what I'd called patched up cars. I collect and restore from the ground up classic cars from the 1930-1935 time period and sports cars of the 50's-60's. They go to national judged & juried shows and Concours d'Elegance like Pebble Beach. Properly restored vehicles don't have bondo in them. You won't find them at the level of shows I display at. A good restorer/shop would never do it.

Exceptional all original cars do command high values for desirable vehicles. It has always been that way on the motorcycle side, but it has really only been the last 20 years or so that we have seen that on the antique auto side. There are just so few left of old highly desirable & rare vehicles that somebody hasn't touched to some degree.

Well, if you have a tech that knows what he is doing, like Dan Oberloh, you can this result.


Lots of patches before....


And none after...

Bottom bow repair...

Bandmaster wrote:Well, if you have a tech that knows what he is doing, like Dan Oberloh, you can this result.


Lots of patches before....


And none after...

Bottom bow repair...

That's pretty Damn impressive I have to say, probably costs a fortune though.

lost wrote:

EMC wrote: That's pretty Damn impressive I have to say, probably costs a fortune though.

Looks like that wouldn't be a problem for you.

That doesn't make it less expensive.

Besides costs, it also takes a VERY long time and needs a repairman crazy and talented enough to go down that rabbit hole. Results are one thing, cost-benefit is another.

bort wrote:

lost wrote:

EMC wrote: That's pretty Damn impressive I have to say, probably costs a fortune though.

Looks like that wouldn't be a problem for you.

That doesn't make it less expensive.

Besides costs, it also takes a VERY long time and needs a repairman crazy and talented enough to go down that rabbit hole. Results are one thing, cost-benefit is another.

And, for the 'never use filler' people in the crowd, there were numerous skim coats of copper on that 345 before the shiny silver was put on.