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I went to Mark Nelson's spring recital last night in Tucson. He was doing a variety of things, including playing some "interesting" instruments. One was a very old bell-front BBb, that I guess he dug up out of some closet at the school, and another was a blue plastic CoolWind Bbb tuba. It sounded not that different from the first one, except that the clacking (not clanking) of the valves was just about as loud as the tuba itself. It was a fun night, intended to be so, with a lot of nice music and a good crowd for the venue.

I took lessons from Mark twenty-some years ago. He is a great performer and can make the older horns sing...also, for some reason, tubas don't appear quite so big when he is holding them! : )

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I use my (black) Coolwind BBb Tuba from 5/2016 almost everyday and I am happy with the mighty lightweight. (Mpc Sidey SSH)
If the valve screws are fixed, there is no clacking, but the springs are rather strong. When the rotors in the casings go dry, they get stuck.
La Tromba ultra thin valve oil avoid that.

The screws that hold the stop arms onto the rotor shafts do tend to become loose. When that happens the "clacking" becomes much louder. When the screw finally comes out you get one really loud clack. But in spite of being an ergonomic nightmare requiring frequent maintenance, it's a great-sounding tuba. I'm still using mine and still making minor improvements.
My dream is to own a black plastic version of Dick Barth's 4/4 BBb BMB with pistons.

Art Hovey wrote:The screws that hold the stop arms onto the rotor shafts do tend to become loose. When that happens the "clacking" becomes much louder. When the screw finally comes out you get one really loud clack. But in spite of being an ergonomic nightmare requiring frequent maintenance, it's a great-sounding tuba. I'm still using mine and still making minor improvements.
My dream is to own a black plastic version of Dick Barth's 4/4 BBb BMB with pistons.

I haven't seen one of these up close. Can I assume that the rotor shafts, stop arms and screws are made of metal? If so, use red Loctite when they are assembled. That should help keep them from backing out. Don't use blue Loctite. That would be like using epoxy glue. The red will hold the screws tight but allows them to be removed easily.

I think you have your Loctites reversed there.

See #3 here:

http://galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/Tiger/Tiger.html target="_blank

Art Hovey wrote:See #3 here:

http://galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/Tiger/Tiger.html target="_blank

"Now, look what you've done, Stanley..."