Building a fiberglass upright bell for a 20J

[PMeuph]

My experience working with fibreglass is limited, but the three things I picked up are that there's a learning curve to working with it, it's nasty stuff and it's not cheap in small quantities.

In sum, I don't disagree with Bloke.

[royjohn]

I'm not sure if I heard that was their price or dreamed it or what. I have an email in to them (called them at 9:30Am their time and the recording said they were closed) asking for a current price quote on the bell. And, yes, IDK why I wrote that, because I do think that is way too low. I'm guessing $600 to $900, but it might be more than that...I'll post the quote here when I hear back from them. I visited the factory several years ago when in SoCal. Very nice people and wonderful horns, some of which I got to play. We tried to go back and take the factory tour, but they were at NAMM and weren't giving tours. I would have loved to have met Zigmunt before he passed. Next time I'm out that way I will take the tour.

I wonder if anyone here has a Kanstul upright bell for a Conn 2Xj horn and could report on how it works for them...

[PMeuph]

$400 for a Kanstul bell doesn't sound so bad...

Kanstul quoted you a price of $400 for one of their bells?

That is a lot lower than I’ve been lead to believe.

I've also been lead to believe that it was over $1K. (I have $1200 in mind, but can't remember where I saw that) here's a topic that mentions the over $1k price.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=70958" target="_blank

[royjohn]

If the upright bell is $1200 (plus shipping?) then I'd have over $2K in the horn and I would wonder whether it might be better to just find a BAT with an upright bell...it might depend on whether I will be able to get rid of my flat F when the valves are aligned...

[Donn]

It seems to me though that there are persons of creditable reputation, who have seen 20J series tubas that do not have the flat F.

[royjohn]

Double N Donn wrote:

It seems to me though that there are persons of creditable reputation, who have seen 20J series tubas that do not have the flat F.

Oh, c'mon, Donn, bloke is just being his cheery self...although it is true that some well regarded repair folks have claimed that a properly de-dented, non-leaky, valve-aligned Conn 2XJ does not have the flat F. My leadpipe has been de-dented by a local tech and I did tape most of the big joints to see if that might help (a 20J is pretty with all that blue painter's tape decorating it), but so far the F is still equally flat whether played open or 1-3. It seems odd to me that 1-3 doesn't seem to help at all...I'm going to get one of those little USB cable cameras and see if the valves are out of line...they do have new felts, but that doesn' mean they are aligned...I'm not sure if there's anything else I might do...I'll bet using a blokepiece would fix it right up...

[royjohn]

Wow, great minds think alike, I was just wondering if there was an alternative bell I could use...

[Art Hovey]

I asked Dick Barth about purchasing one of his bells, and he said no.
Same answer for a valve section.

[The Big Ben]

I asked Dick Barth about purchasing one of his bells, and he said no.
Same answer for a valve section.

I'm sure he would rather sell the complete instrument.