TubeNet

Saw this on eBay and was just wondering:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Big-new-body-Tuba-C ... nstruments" target="_blank

It's missing all of the slides, valves and linkage, but all of the tubing is there. I thought that in red brass this should have been labeled a 786. Even if one could finish this for a reasonable price, you would still only have a Cerveny BBb...

That's been on ebay for a long time. Seems like the seller would realize that by now pretty much everyone in the world in any position to do something with it has seen it and does not want it at that price.

Good point. I know that my Musica "Styriaton" tuba which I was told was a Cerveny 786 stencil was rose brass, but not nearly as red, and the ferrules, braces and valve casings were all nickel silver (it didn't have a garland). It does seem strange to me that someone would use red lacquer on a horn in this state of manufacturing though. If you look inside the valve casings in the closeup photos it clearly looks like regular brass, yet where you can see the inside of the slides it looks like there is raw red brass. The whole thing seems odd to me.

I noticed that about the slides as well. It does look red in there. But digital pictures are funny things. It's very clear with the valve casings that it is regular brass on the inside.

If you look at the fifth picture down, it looks like both points may be true: perhaps it is primarily rose brass, and it has been covered with a tinted lacquer. It looks like the lacquer didn't get well sprayed into the hard-to-reach places. That would explain why parts that shouldn't be copper colored are.

LJV wrote:Some processors flash items with copper in preparation for silver plating. Anderson Plating once did this, but no longer requires it and handles items on a case by case basis now.

I was going to suggest the same thing... in fact that can happen in an acid bath in any iron gets in the dip too... then voila!... pink tuba!

I thought Anderson still did flash copper; I'm disappointed if they don't anymore : (

Cool!

the elephant wrote:I am starting to lean toward a photoshopping so that he can call this red brass and scam someone.

I doubt it. The first picture has a light reflection off of the tuba, and it seems like the right kind of reflected reddish color. The guy also has hundreds of other things for sale.

Has anyone actually just asked the guy?

I'm with bloke and LJV... preplated finish.

Too expensive... and yet...

I emailed the seller, and it sounds like it might be some sort of spray on tinted lacquer.

Yes, it seems you are right. I had a closer look inside the bell and you can see yellow brass at the bottom inside.

So, I guess it isn't so much "red brass," as it is "brass that is red."

bort wrote:I emailed the seller, and it sounds like it might be some sort of spray on tinted lacquer.

Yes, it seems you are right. I had a closer look inside the bell and you can see yellow brass at the bottom inside.

So, I guess it isn't so much "red brass," as it is "brass that is red."

LOL. That was a long and interesting trip around the barn to get back to what Elephant said to begin with! But now the seller has edited his auction page to go with the copper plate theory.