SAY NO TO UNBRANDED JUNK-INSIST ON AN ORIGINAL TRISTAR!

[SplatterTone]

I forgot to say that the valve felts on the horn rapidly disintegrated. I'm sure my prolific oiling didn't help. So I cut some replacements out of a synthetic scouring pad (aka "3M pad"). Initially, they shed 3M pad flecks, and the valves had to be cleaned frequently. Eventually, everything stablized, and the 3M pad "felts" have been holding up very well and working nicely. Maybe if I had given the pads a good washing prior to installing them, the shedding would not have occurred.

[tubatooter1940]

Bought a Soviet Army p.o.c. tuba in Siberia for ten bucks,U.S.. The music store put it in a canvas sack and you can imagine how badly Alaska Airlines rumpled it when they threw it in the hold and then covered it with more thrown luggage.
Intrerestingly,after playing the thing for an hour, the tuba would warm up and the crappy rotary valves would quieten a bit and the horn sounded decent if I remembered to play slowly. I made some new valve stoppers by gluing in some wine corks I carved with a craft knife and the horn was able to play a gig until screws started falling out of the rotary valves.
The tuba served to excite me about tooting tuba again and when my 1940 King arrived,the Russian horn now hangs as a wall ornament.

[windshieldbug]

We also sell 4 valve euphoniums where the 4th valve is used to get the F note

Tip: Just don't use the "F" word while playing...