TubeNet

...is there a commercial product out there made specifically to go on the bead of the horn?

...for protection, of course...heh...

if you mean protecting the bell rim, yes, like this one:
http://www.thomann.de/be/thomann_schall ... ng40cm.htm

Go to Home Depot, Lowe's or other hardware store for something like this:(measure your bell circumference, the tubing diameter for mine is about the size of the tubing used for water in a refrigerator ice-maker)
http://www.lowes.com/pd_443064-104-SVGE ... tic+tubing
It's usually available by the foot. Slit it with a knife or scissors, wrap it around your bell, let it overlap, cut it so ends meet, DONE...for way less than the approx $12 listed in the link above.
Pete

Hello,
A soft PVC tube has the disadvantage to loose its elasticity after some time especially if it's exposed to heat.
My Melton/MW 200 was equipped with such a tube when it was delivered new from factory.
Already after some weeks it fell off almost of itself and I had to put it back very often.
Since I at that time had access to pneumatic tubes made of nylon of various sizes and colours I made one by myself.
It has now been on its place for twenty years without any problem at all.
I would strongly recommend nylon before PVC.
The reason to the blue colour is that I at that time played with a military band in Sweden and wished to show the Swedish colours (blue and yellow) when playing abroad.
However the nylon tubes are available in any colour (and size).
Good luck,
Lars

There is a product intended for protection of the standing rigging on yachts/sailboats. It is a tube that comes ready split, and simply clips on to the steel rigging line, or in this case to the bell rim. My colleauge bought his at a local boat outfitter (I would have said chandlery, but that word only seems to pop up on British web sites, and in Moby Dick). Whatever, it is very effective, and looks smart.

ppalan wrote:Go to Home Depot, Lowe's or other hardware store for something like this:(measure your bell circumference, the tubing diameter for mine is about the size of the tubing used for water in a refrigerator ice-maker)
http://www.lowes.com/pd_443064-104-SVGE ... tic+tubing
It's usually available by the foot. Slit it with a knife or scissors, wrap it around your bell, let it overlap, cut it so ends meet, DONE...for way less than the approx $12 listed in the link above.
Pete

Yes. I use 3/8 O.D. I have put it on every instrument I have owned. I have a friend help me with holding one end of the tubing while I slit the length with an exacto knife. Then it only takes a few minutes to fit it to the bell bead and trim the excess length. Cost is never more than @$2-3 per tuba (if they sell it by the foot instead of in a 20-ft roll) plus the gas to get to the nearest home improvement box store and back home, and only then if I'm not already driving by with other errands. In addition to bell protection, it damps the overring that is common on many tubas and souzys, without damping the resonance or tone. I heartily recommend it be done to every tuba and souzy.

TIP: leave about an inch overlap, as you will slightly stretch the tubing installing it. After a few days, it will contract back down so you can then trim it flush, and not leave a gap, as I did the first time or two I did this.

I do this with my 19" EEb bell and the 17" Buescher bell. I think it actually helps the resonance of the Wessex horn (maybe damping out a slight degree of "ring" at times? Whatever. Could be all in my mind.)

Slitting the tubing is a pain. However, somewhere (?) I came across a design for a simple "slitting jig" made from a piece of wood and a razor blade. You need to drill a hole, saw the block in half (longitudinally with the hole), insert a single-edge razor blade correctly aligned, and then fasten (several methods) the pieces of the block together. They you just take your tube, push it through until an end emerges, and then just pull that end to easily slit the entire length.

Size of the hole depends on size of the tubing.