sorry...I can't help it...STEALTH TUBA !!!

[Chuck(G)]

Chuck, where's that cartoon showing the tuba player's self perception compared with the audience's perception that you posted a few weeks ago?

[iiipopes]

And whereas, as with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle!

[Chuck(G)]

[The best picture is of the euphonium player! Do you have that? (And do you have a right- or left-handed pear-shaped tone?)

I think I already posted the "euphonium players play cello music" one a few weeks back.

[porkchopsisgood]

Forget the Thor!!!

Where's my checkbook?!???!??!???



(as if there's any money in my account....boo)

AVC

[KarlMarx]

So, how does it sound?

Wouldn't it be supposed to have a clear sound?

Carolus Assumissimus

[Haugan]

Geeze - 24 posts before anyone mentioned a "Clear tone quality"

[basstbone64]

As to how it plays, I've honked on this horn and it's amazing. Far superior to a fiberglass sousa. I'd buy one!

Some shameless self promotion: that picture was taken at Thomas Musical Instruments in Santa Cruz, CA.

Kevin Blodgett
Repair Technician

[Davidus1]

I guess that means during a poor performance I'll be safe from attack from the audience!

[peter birch]

Geeze - 24 posts before anyone mentioned a "Clear tone quality"

....and transparent programming....

[DuckCallDan]

The plastic bell reminds me of a dream I had. In real life I worked for many years as a mechanical engineer designing water treatment systems. In my dream I was working for my old company tasked with building a tuba. My dream was pretty vivid and I thought some of you might be interested in the results.

The bell and the largest tapered loops where made some modern plastic. The finish was slightly translucent, milky-white and looked like bone china mixed with mother-of-pearl.

The rest of the tubing consisted mostly of high-grade, high-purity hose. If you are not familiar with high-purity water fittings they are designed so that the interior surfaces are flawless. The perfectly smooth internal surfaces do not give anywhere for bacteria or other contaminates to accumulate. The tubing is reinforced and designed to bend without kinking.

Because the tubing is flexible the slides and pistons were vastly simplified. See the attached crude sketch. The "piston" is just a fitting where the tubes slide past each other.

The slides were adjusted using a ferrule nut type compression fitting. The slide tubing was graduated with tic marks so that you could accurately recreate various slide settings.

The mouth pipe was also flexible but had a metal collar to accept the mouthpiece. This collar attached to a vertical track on the bell so the height of the mouthpiece could be adjusted.

In typical dream logic the tuba also had some features that don't make a lot of sense in the light of day.

The tuba had no water key, instead the flexible tube had a slit in it. Normally the slit would be closed but if you squeezed the tube the slit would open and you could blow the water out.

The tuba had a temperature compensator. The details are fuzzy but it was some sort of adjustable lever that would automatically open or close the slides based on the temperature.

In my dream I used a '50s style supercomputer (blinky lights, reel to reel tape, etc.) to calculate the acoustic properties of each fitting and tubing bend.

I think I could build this tuba if only I had a '50s style supercomputer.