TubeNet

Embedding the pic was a nightmare, so here's a link: http://i.imgur.com/rvERGLk.jpg

Suffice to say: it's a pretty banged up tuba.

This is a long post. If you don't want to read all of it (which is totally fair), just read the sections beginning with bolded words.

Short version: My HS band has the opportunity to spend $15,000 or so in reserves on various odds and ends. I want to try and push for repairs for this tuba, but it depends on how much you guys would estimate its repair costs to be. As it is -- even with the crumpled horn -- it sounds around as good as the other tubas, and I'd really love to hear it repaired. If it's relevant: I live in a rural area. I'm not sure how this affects repair costs, but it may.
Also, feel free to use the example of tuba repairists who work long distance (i.e. those on this forum).


Essay version: My school is making a silly rule saying that the booster clubs can only have $50,000 between all of them. (No word on why this is -- guessing tax reasons or something.) Music boosters alone has $25,000 in reserve, so they're giving chorus and band the opportunity to make a "wish list" on what to spend it on.
Recently, a ton of people have been joining band. I'm assuming most of our cut will go to buying new instruments. That said, I have a wee bond with this horn (more on that later) and would *love* to see it be functional again.
My band director, whenever it's brought up, talks about how its damage is such a shame because it's our best horn (counting other brass in the equation). Again, though, whether or not it will make the wish list probably depends hugely on the estimated repair costs. We have 3 other tubas, which work fine, and in a fund-strapped rural band that tends to be deemed good enough.
Anyways, for the part that is not relevant at all (i.e. why I care): the BD told me how it got the dents. Its previous player decided to put a dent in it for each year they played it. He didn't know they were doing this until he caught them in the act. (Not sure why he didn't question them before hand, but hey, I'm not him.) While it was out of storage, I played it (which is how I can confirm its quality).

tl;dr: I'd like an assessment on what you guys think its repair will cost, whether asking for repairs is worth it, and whether it is likely I can convince BD to get repairs based on these factors. (The most important one is the first.)

A thousand thanks to all of you lovely players

The bell is clearly the worst issue. I had one done ("rolled out") recently and it wasn't expensive at all, though it's hard to tell from the pic if yours is in worse shape. One of the fine professional repair people on here could probably give you a more meaningful answer.

What make and model is the tuba?

Where are you located?

Heavy_Metal wrote:The bell is clearly the worst issue. I had one done ("rolled out") recently and it wasn't expensive at all, though it's hard to tell from the pic if yours is in worse shape. One of the fine professional repair people on here could probably give you a more meaningful answer.

What make and model is the tuba?

Where are you located?

Oh, by far. If I remember correctly, the rest of the body was pretty good, but the bell is awful.

It's a CC, though I'm not sure who made it. If I remember correctly, it didn't have a brand on it. That said, the rest of our tubas are Bachs, so if I had my guess it'd be that.

I'm in central PA, about an equal distance from Pittsburg and Philadelphia.

Post some more pics of it- front, back, close up of valve section etc. Someone on here might recognize it.

If you don't have a local shop that can fix the bell, it might have to go to one of the larger cities. I don't know the shops in Philly or Pittsburgh, but here we have Baltimore Brass where they do a great job, and depending on your location might be just as close. Oh, and coming to Baltimore you might not have to pay those PA Turnpike tolls!

Heavy_Metal wrote: Post some more pics of it- front, back, close up of valve section etc. Someone on here might recognize it.

If you don't have a local shop that can fix the bell, it might have to go to one of the larger cities. I don't know the shops in Philly or Pittsburgh, but here we have Baltimore Brass where they do a great job, and depending on your location might be just as close. Oh, and coming to Baltimore you might not have to pay those PA Turnpike tolls!

I'll try to get more pictures tomorrow, and failing that Friday. It's on top of our lockers right now -- storage -- but with help and permission from BD I'm sure it'll be no problem.

As far as I know, we have a technician nearby who's alright with brass and normally does our repairs for brass instruments. I dunno if he does tubas, but fingers crossed.
Otherwise, it'll probably be Philly (which is slightly closer) or Baltimore (if I can convince them to do so).
Our tolls can be awful! That would certainly be a huge benefit!

That bell's not that hard to roll out. It certainly won't look like new, but it won't take long to do.

bloke wrote:

UncleBeer wrote:That bell's not that hard to roll out. It certainly won't look like new, but it won't take long to do.

This.

The biggest nuisances to me would be unpacking, repacking, typing up a shipping label, and carrying off to the FedEx place.

Usually, a tuba with a bell like that, though, has other _ _ _ _ wrong with it that is considerably more time-consuming to fix than this bell.

The reason the bell is in that shape is because its last player deliberately dented the bell repeatedly. The rest of the instrument isn't in nearly as bad of shape.

It could probably be rolled. It looks a lot like the bell on my 681 when I got it. I did the poor man's repair job. A couple of rubber mallets and a lot of pounding. It's not perfect but it is tuba shaped again. Might be worth a try if the BD does not want to spend the cash. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=71105" target="_blank

I'm going to be that guy for a second...

This is clearly for a high school band program (please correct me if I'm wrong). In my opinion, repairing the bell on a CC tuba should be the last priority for the band budget. 95% of tuba players going through the school won't be able to play it. The few hundred that it'll most likely cost by the time bell repairs, other hidden issues, and shipping are totaled up could be better used on say more music for the program and students. Even being a tuba player myself in your director's position I would fix that bell ONLY if I had bought/paid for everything else the band needed before touching that horn.

If this was for a college that had tuba performance majors then I would do the repairs earlier, but for high school? No way.

bububassboner wrote:I'm going to be that guy for a second...

This is clearly for a high school band program (please correct me if I'm wrong). In my opinion, repairing the bell on a CC tuba should be the last priority for the band budget. 95% of tuba players going through the school won't be able to play it. The few hundred that it'll most likely cost by the time bell repairs, other hidden issues, and shipping are totaled up could be better used on say more music for the program and students. Even being a tuba player myself in your director's position I would fix that bell ONLY if I had bought/paid for everything else the band needed before touching that horn.

If this was for a college that had tuba performance majors then I would do the repairs earlier, but for high school? No way.

Mate, don't be afraid to be that guy. A part of my original post was asking whether or not pushing for repairs is worth it, and your opinion falls under that umbrella.

I am a bit surprised that as a student you have really any influence or control over how this money is spent. There are likely other needs the band program has for the funds - things you may not even be aware of - beyond repairing a CC tuba (really, it's a CC tuba?). I doubt your band director will have trouble coming up with ways to use the funds. If you simply want to suggest to your band director that the tuba in question be fixed, I see no problem doing that. Just don't be disappointed if it doesn't happen.

edsel585960 wrote:It could probably be rolled. It looks a lot like the bell on my 681 when I got it. I did the poor man's repair job. A couple of rubber mallets and a lot of pounding. It's not perfect but it is tuba shaped again. Might be worth a try if the BD does not want to spend the cash. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=71105

I'd be afraid to do this, if only because it might make it harder to really straighten out? It looks like you've "ironed in" a bunch of creases at the inside of the flare. The skills to avoid this might be fairly easy to acquire, though, if it's possible to start with some scrap material for a little practice.

Tom wrote:I am a bit surprised that as a student you have really any influence or control over how this money is spent. There are likely other needs the band program has for the funds - things you may not even be aware of - beyond repairing a CC tuba (really, it's a CC tuba?). I doubt your band director will have trouble coming up with ways to use the funds. If you simply want to suggest to your band director that the tuba in question be fixed, I see no problem doing that. Just don't be disappointed if it doesn't happen.

Each section gets one major request to the BD (which doesn't mean it'll be accepted, but just that it's the thing we want most). I'm the only tubist, so yeah.
It depends quite largely on how much the local repairs will be. If what is deemed as a good repair runs above $375 (my estimate), it won't happen. Even then, maybe not.

bloke wrote:Drive it down to blokeplace, and the repairs
(at least, those that you've shown)
will be a heluva lot less than $375...
...particularly if you're interested in clearing out some brush...

...but (again) mail-order repairs
(unpacking/repacking/shipping label creation/drop-off)
do not excite me.

Always something to clear out on a farm
But yeah, as I've read on this forum, shipping tubas is a fast track for a nervous wreck.

bloke wrote:No real harm was done to that Cerveny bell in not completely repairing it...

As long as creases are not folded back over on themselves, they can still be flattened out smoothly.

It could be rolled out if I wanted to spend the cash. None of the creases are folded over. I take the time to make sure they are not folded over when working on them. It's a $350 horn that was scrap metal when I bought it. Don't want to put any more in to it. It plays like a beast as is. I just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth since my bell looked exactly like the one in the post when I started. Does you high school have industrial arts? Might try straightening out on an English wheel if they have one. Just spitballing here for low to no cost fixes.

Take it in to a local (reputable) shop. They're going to look it over and assess the rest of the horn besides the obvious. When I see school horns come through the shop with bells like that, there's almost always other problems.

If you want to send it to Portland I'll make it look good for you.

-Kevin

Get it fixed!!!

WTF?

So did the horn get fixed?

tuba-jesus wrote:
A thousand thanks to all of you lovely players

Umm...not sure what tuba players look like where you're from....but lovely is certainly not a term I would use to describe the average tubist......