Handmade tubas

[Rick Denney]

We often hear that handmade tubas are better than the normal manufactured tubas, but why is that so?

What is it about handmade tubas that makes them play better as surely the internal dimensions are not much different if they are the same design (e.g. MW 195 v 195/2)?

When examining a second hand tuba, how can you tell if it is handmade?

I think it has to do with residual stress. A formed branch may have metal fighting itself as a result of the forming process, while hand hammering tends to relieve those stresses and hand craftsmen tend to work the material so that things fit and don't have to be forced to fit during assembly. Even so, this will have a very subtle effect.

Plus, I suspect the hand-made horns get a higher percentance of time with real masters, and probably get a lot more tweaking after assembly to make sure they are just right. I'm sure this has a bigger effect than the residual stress.

Rick "whose personal experience does not bear out that handmade tubas are always better" Denney

[Chuck(G)]

The quality of finish on some old tubas would make your head swim if you could see what was under the guards. Old Miraphone bottom bows typically have a really rough seam under the guard--and you can sometimes see hammer marks on the inside of the bottom bow.

I was surprised to discover on an early 60's Miraphone, that the leadpipe had a seam--it wasn't drawn from seamless tubing.

I suspect that modern methods allow for less material waste than the old "slap a hunk of brass over a form, beat the dickens out of it, braze, then sand the bejeezus out of it to make it look smooth and shiny" methods. And that imodern methods result in different thicknesses and distribution of material.

But necessarily better? I don't know--there are plenty of old dogs.