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Hey everyone,
Just received my 1930 Martin Handcraft in the mail. It's a great playing tuba. I am going to get it chem cleaned and valves aligned this week along with some dent work. In the near future I am planning on putting on a straight lead pipe. Other than that I am not cutting her or putting front facing valves. I really like the feel and openness of a 3 valve top action Martin. I look forward to trying it out in some outside gigs with the navy band next week. A huge thank you to Jim Gray who sold me the horn. The process was very quick and he is an upstanding guy. Another thank you to Tom Treece who let me come over and play a bunch of his Martins which is why I knew I needed to buy one. Tom is the patron saint of tuba players and is just a wealth of tuba knowledge.
Zach

Enjoy your new (old) tuba!

Mark

KiltieTuba wrote:You either need to manually delete attachments in your control panel or host the image somewhere else - very easy to do both.

Thank you, I made the adjustments and added the photo.
Zach

Hi Zach,

Congratulations! Martins are great horns.

I would not be too quick to change out the leadpipe. Did you get Martin bits, along with the horn? I can't tell by the picture.

Paul Scott is really the guy to talk to (maybe he will chime in!), but I think that the leadpipe/bits are part of the Martin magic.

Yes I have the original bits with the horn. I did play some Martin's with a straight lead pipe and I really liked it.

You are now ready to take your rightful place in the next Guy Lombardo tribute band!

Enjoy it. Those big old Martins are great!

Curmudgeon wrote:What's hanging on the wall behind you?

It's a custom sign made by a sign maker in Hawaii. It says "Buckwash Ohana". It was the first tuba sign he made.

Congratulations, Zach! I'd suggest keeping the adjustable bits, as they come in very handy when you need to adjust yourself and horn to odd chairs, etc., at different venues. Your horn looks very much like my 1936 Martin. I think you'll find that, once the horn is clean and the valve alignment is perfected, that you'll have point-and-shoot intonation and a very easy-to-control horn. For any type of band work, my Martin is much easier to play than anything else I've experienced.

3 valves??

Perfect!!

Hi Zach,

Those pre-WWII Martins are great and the 3-valve top-action models are very, very consistent. I'd echo Lee's comments about the adjustable bits. It's great to have an adjustable leadpipe on a big horn like this and Martin made them very well. They aren't like sousa bits in that they are fitted very accurately and don't have the internal "bumps" that sousa bits have. A common problem on these is valve stems that are too short, (but it looks like that may have been remedied by someone). I've had some of my happiest times/gigs playing one of these Martins!

Enjoy,

Paul

Hey everyone just wanted to update you about the Martin. Took the Martin over to Tom Treece and I helped him chem clean the tuba, take out dents, found and fixed a leak and aligned the valves. When I got home I started on hand polishing the horn and I am currently about to apply my second coat of Johnson's paste wax to protect the finish and my dress whites. The tuba plays amazing well and I can't wait for my first gig with it. Huge thank you to Tom Treece for his work and knowledge.

Looks good! If I ever get up Jacksonville way sure would love to see it in person.

Update on the Martin. According to the serial number my Martin was made in 1934. Brought it back to Tom's and found that the 3rd valve stem was shorter then the rest of the other valve stems. We made some adjustments to the stem and was able to get a very accurate valve alignment which really makes this beast play great. Apparently having one short valve stem can be a common occurrence with the Martins. We also took the bottom bow guard guard off and reshaped it. The bow guard guard was practically flat and falling off the bow guard. Now the bow and bow guard will be better protected.

I contacted Matt Walters at Dillon and found out that an very old ex Navy tuba player sold him the Martin. Apparently the Navy tuba player used it while he was in the service. He sold it to Matt many years ago and Matt is fuzzy on the details. He doesn't know if it was a Navy bought Martin or his personal. I think it was his personal tuba. There are no USN markings on the tuba and the Navy only used Martin's from 1950-1956 if I am correct. Either way it is great to be able to return this beautiful American made tuba back to Naval service. Well more like reserve service since I only use the Martin on wind ensemble gigs and outside Ceremonial band gigs. Those 2 piece wood cases are too heavy to using everyday even with a folding dolly.

Big thanks to Tom for all his work and friendship and thank you to Matt for digging up some history on my Martin.

Hmmm....that bell looks vaguely familiar....

Beautiful horn! They are great players - best of luck to you with it!!

Zach,
That is a Kanstul Martin reproduction bell, engraved by Sherry Huntley of Artistic Engraving Inc., then gold-tint lacquered.

Lenny Jung?