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Hello all, I had an idea to add PVC pipe to my 3 valve BBb to lower it an octave. I know how I would go about doing it, but my question is what length pipe would I need in order to get my desired result? I'm guessing it's somewhere in the range of 12-16ft. I'd probably put 4 bends in the pipe if anyone was curious how I was planning on doing it, just another loop of tubing really.

Your instrument will probably not play well when you do that, but you'll need approximately 18 feet of extra tubing to do that.

YORK-aholic wrote:That is a lot of cylindrical tubing, but...

As long as it is a reversible modification with no damage to the horn,

Why not?

What's the worst that could happen?

Yeah, I have a detachable bell so it would be a very simple modification to do, and one that's easily reversible. I suppose another, much cheaper route would be to extend the lead pipe by 18ft...hmm...

YORK-aholic wrote:

IceePirate wrote:

YORK-aholic wrote:That is a lot of cylindrical tubing, but...

As long as it is a reversible modification with no damage to the horn,

Why not?

What's the worst that could happen?

Yeah, I have a detachable bell so it would be a very simple modification to do, and one that's easily reversible. I suppose another, much cheaper route would be to extend the lead pipe by 18ft...hmm...

18 odd feet of pvc the same diameter as the detachable bell tenon will be a bit heavy. I hope you've got a tuba stand.

18' leadpipe or maybe an 18' main tuning slide.

This is what happens when tuba players are "confined to quarters" and have too much time on their hands...

But, no harm, no foul.

Genius, an 18' tuning slide, would just make it look a bit weird in the front, but could otherwise be played the same. I suppose I'd have to increase the tubing for each valve to make it compatible to play the same notes, but I only need it for a handful of notes for a piece I'm writing, so I'll just figure it out. Might have a bit of trouble with spit too...hmm...could probably drill a hole in the bottom that's covered with tape during playing. I imagine I'm going to be using a decent amount of tape in order to prevent soldering anything.

YORK-aholic wrote:

IceePirate wrote:An 18' tuning slide would just make it look a bit weird in the front

And that, Gentleman, is the quote of the day.

How well does your Bb tuba play in the pedal range? Can you play a decent pedal tone with all three valves engaged? Before you start adding tubing, make sure you can play with all the tubing you already have.

Hup

hup_d_dup wrote:How well does your Bb tuba play in the pedal range? Can you play a decent pedal tone with all three valves engaged? Before you start adding tubing, make sure you can play with all the tubing you already have.

Hup

Haven't been able to get to the hardware store lately, but I've tried and it's just a little out of range for decent playing. Plus, I want to do it anyway to see how low I can play. Another side benefit is that I'll have one of if not the only contrabass tuba that can be easily hotswapped into a subcontrabass tuba by moving the mouthpiece and inserting a flexible pipe to make a super long lead pipe.

If I like it and want to make it a true subcontrabass tuba, then I'll have to figure out how much tubing to add to each of the valves so that the fingerings can stay the same.

Uh, about how long have you been off your medication? Help is out there at your local clinic. You might want to utilize it.

Ace (just kidding)

For kicks, one could go to a hardware store and get 18 feet or so of the clear 1/2” ID tubing and just slip one end over the leadpipe and coil it around the bell and pop the mouthpiece in and see what happens.

So I did it, got 20' of copper pipe and cut it to size, ended up being a little under 17 feet funnily enough. Anyways, the result is that it makes it MUCH easier to play in the lower register, which was the goal. It doesn't really affect the range of the instrument much, but I think that might be from either lack of experience, too small of a mouthpiece, or some combination of both. Anyways, I'm now in the process of shaping the pipe. The end goal is to make it where I can take the mouthpiece out, put it in the extended pipe, and put the extended pipe in the original mouthpiece slot. Think the new lead pipe directly above the original lead pipe with being able to easily swap in the other pipe.

IceePirate wrote:So I did it, got 20' of copper pipe and cut it to size, ended up being a little under 17 feet funnily enough. Anyways, the result is that it makes it MUCH easier to play in the lower register, which was the goal. It doesn't really affect the range of the instrument much, but I think that might be from either lack of experience, too small of a mouthpiece, or some combination of both.

It seems that your goal has changed, since in the first post you said:

IceePirate wrote:Hello all, I had an idea to add PVC pipe to my 3 valve BBb to lower it an octave.

Hup

the elephant wrote:When can we post food and beer photos in this thread? What is the official ruling on this?

This is a ruling that takes a little authority and I have as little authority as anyone here.

You may post food and beer photos now.

That is all.

I tend to be rather old-school and traditional with my mods and designs, but I'm eagerly anticipating how this will turn out.

bloke wrote:If you do, just wear a mask.

#talisman

Right, so I've done a bit of bending to the pipe to try and get it in place, but it's proving harder than I thought. So I tried using a blowtorch to heat the metal up, but it was a little too hot for the gloves I had, so I'm gonna go buy some more heat resistant gloves and then give it another go. I just thought I would give an update to those of you who are watching this thread intently.