TubeNet

Howdy folks,

First post on the TubeNet! Here goes:

My current horn is a Mack Brass 410 CC. It's great, I like it, it's a tuba. However, the valves are unsurprisingly Chinese. They work, albeit very loudly and tend to unwork themselves frequently. I quickly replaced the synthetic bumpers with neoprene a month after puchase, as I sort of sliced them in half by just using them. Never had that problem before.

Anyway, if I can avoid it, I don't want to invest in a new instrument. I happen to really like the way this one responds and how well intonated it naturally is. I just get frustrated any time I practice because the valves clank and unwork at least once a week. I want to upgrade this instrument with a set of German Miraphone 186 valves.

My questions are:

Does anyone have experience with this?

How did it turn out?

Which year of a 186 swaps most easily?

Did you swap an entire valve section, or just the likages?

Are the valves interchangeable between casings?

Should I bother?

Am I crazy?

How do you get better at low notes?


But really, if there is some other forum, or if I'm better off saving up for a used 186, I'm all ears. Thanks a bunch!

I have a beautiful old 186 that needs a new home...

The valves on my 410 make a lot of noise, too - the first valve especially. They are a lot quieter after I oil them. I replaced the (quickly) worn out stops with cork and that helped. I think that this horn needs to have a more robust link and ball system. When I first got it, I was shocked at how thin the link rods are - they look like they are made out of coat hanger wire, but they seem to work.

If I keep mine, I will someday be trying to rework it using better parts. But what do you want for a $2K horn?

LibraryMark wrote:But what do you want for a $2K horn?

Bingo.

bloke wrote:- play
- save money
- sell
- buy a new-or-used 186
- play

What bloke said.

LibraryMark wrote: If I keep mine, I will someday be trying to rework it using better parts. But what do you want for a $2K horn?

Yes. "It is what it is". If you have skills and can do the work yourself, changing out a valve set might make financial sense. The Elephant has one of these and has tuned it to how he likes it but he has the skills. I have no guess how much a full treatment would cost if an owner hired it done.

Scrub wrote: How do you get better at low notes?

Play lots of them. I've started at about CC, played long tones (about 15 counts @ 60 per note) and went down chromatically until the lip and lungs ran out of gas. I did it again. This makes a pretty good 15 min. warm up for me. Keep doing it until you can go down as low as you need to do. Others may have hints but that is what I do. It has helped considerably on the low notes.

The Big Ben wrote:Keep doing it until you can go down as low as you need to do.

And then keep going. I thought I'd work down to E since I just have a 12J, but I've found that the false tones work surprisingly well on the horn, and they are only making the low E sound way better.

One of the best things to happen to me is that I was just getting a good sound on my 12J a couple years ago, and a sousaphone audition at Disney came up. I borrowed a sousaphone about 5 days out, and could not get lower than Bb to save my life. I spent probably 10 hours a day on that horn, mostly working on my low notes since I had a solid audition worked out, and it started to coalesce by the second day.

I made it to the final round in that audition, but didn't get called. The coolest thing, though, is the work only made my low range that much more solid.

I just discovered today that what is making the most noise is the side of the ball joint slapping the side of part that slips over the rotor shaft. I think it's been covered here before. Strikes me as a very poor design. I did make it quieter by putting the ball joint on the paddle end on the other side of the paddle creating more room between the ball joint and the rotor shaft.