Up bells for Conn 2XJ's

[WakinAZ]

Up bells for Conn 2XJ's, buy the wreck at a reasonable BIN and save the bell:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CONN-SHORT-ACTION-V ... 286.c0.m14


http://cgi.ebay.com/CONN-SHORT-ACTION-V ... 286.c0.m14

Eric "who paid a little less than a grand for his upright bell" L.

[b.williams]

Eric,

How dies the upright bell compare to the recording bell on the 20J? The upright bell has a mellowing effect on the King.

Brian "Who now has another 20J and your old King" Williams

[b.williams]

I meant how does...?

[EdFirth]

You can get replacement bells for those big Conns from Lee Stofer and most seem to like them better than the originals because they are smaller in diameter.Ed

[Dan Schultz]

Eric,

How dies the upright bell compare to the recording bell on the 20J? The upright bell has a mellowing effect on the King.

Brian "Who now has another 20J and your old King" Williams

Sorry... I'm not Eric. But I would like to offer an opinion. From my point of view... the biggest difference between the upright and recording bells is from the perception of the player. The recording bell projects outward better than the upright bell and helps to keep from 'playing for the trees' at outdoor gigs. I've recorded with both upright bells and forward bells and the difference is difficult for me to tell which is which.

[b.williams]

I forgive you. Thanks for you response.

[TUBAD83]

With due respect to Mr. Stofer, there is nothing that compares to those huge Conn "indestructible skull cracking" bells--I love 'em! Alot of people think tuba with recording bells have no place on the concert stage---I totally disagree, they sound great and definitely add to the overall sound of the ensemble.

JJ

[WakinAZ]

Well, I'm not Dan or Lee or Brian or Jerry, but somebody scooped up both those Buy-It-Now deals. Personally, if I needed an upright bell I would have jumped on the better of the two and had the seller ship the whole wreck to Dan or Bloke to have them fix the bell up for me and keep the body in trade or whatever... Hard to tell exactly how bad those bells were with the crappy pix, one of them had a suspicious looking rim.

If I could afford a new $1200 Kanstul replacement upright bell instead of a used original Conn, I would give it a whirl maybe.

I've only tooted on the upright bell on the Conn a couple of times, so no opinion yet. Considering they are both 24 inches and a similar flare, I'd be inclined to agree with Dan in this case. On the Kings, I prefer the forward bell. The biggest difference in the bells in either case is probably perception and who will let you play what bell in which group/venue, etc. I've had other tubists tell me they were denied access to certain *amateur, publicly funded* groups with bell front horns . I'm lucky my director lets me play whatever I want - I pulled out the recording bell for the King for extra firepower indoors on "1812" last season

Eric

[Dan Schultz]

Well, I'm not Dan or Lee or Brian or Jerry, but somebody scooped up both those Buy-It-Now deals. .... Eric

Heh heh. I've been wantin' a couple of those horns for some time now. Yeah... I bought both of them. I think one bell is OK but the other has several patches on it and some splits just inside the rim. I don't have a clue yet what I'll do with them but like you said "those upright bells are getting hard to get".

The bell with the patches and splits close to the rim may be able to be cut down a couple of inches and a new rim rolled. I've been experimenting with a sheet metal roller but the tooling is backwards for rolling tuba bell rims. Worse case, I'll may just put a sousa flare on it. The tough part in making one of those upright bells is finding a donor conical section that has some 'shoulder' to make a gentle transition to the flare.

I may just pound the dents of both horns and sell 'em. Dunno. Interest in the 2Xj tubas goes up and down.

[WakinAZ]

Nice score, Dan.

Eric

[Dan Schultz]

Nice score, Dan. Eric

Thanks to you for the 'heads up'.