Has anyone had problems with leadpipe vibration?

[Frank Ortega]

This has happened to me a number of times with different horns.

I recently had the leadpipe moved on my Thor to accomodate my height and slight overbite. Since that time I've been experiencing alot of extra vibration coming back at me from the horn, through the mouthpiece. This seems to result in a greater difficulty slotting notes in the mid and upper range. At first I attributed it to a shallower mouthpiece that I've been using. But, than I decided to try dampening the leadpipe with some fabric tied around it tightly and this seems to help. I than remembered having similar problems with a York that I had which had the leadpipe moved away from the body. I than used some cork to brace it and stop the problem. Later, I had a braced added which didn't seem to really help.

Are there any repairmen out there who have heard of this problem and come up with some alternate solutions?

Has anyone thought of having a sleeve or thicker wall leadpipe attachment of some sort?

Thanks for your input.
Frank Ortega

[sailn2ba]

I used to know a chap who wrapped lead ribbon around his leadpipe between the attachment point and the mouthpiece. To keep it from vibrating loose, he whipped it with dacron thread and put a little epoxy on it.

[imperialbari]

I used to know a chap who wrapped lead ribbon around his leadpipe between the attachment point and the mouthpiece. To keep it from vibrating loose, he whipped it with dacron thread and put a little epoxy on it.

Would make it a true leadpipe, wouldn’t it?

K

[sailn2ba]

Yep, he cinched it with the whipping.

[cjk]

The solution to this problem is for you to swap your Thor for my 2265.

[imperialbari]

Joking aside:

My closest experience is not exactly with leadpipes, but with two tubas having identical bells, branches, and all other tubing but for the leadpipe and the valve system.

I had ordered my Besson 981 3+1 Eb comper in February of 1999, but it didn’t arrive until June. In the mean time I loaned a sample the 700-series version, which was the non-comping version of the 982 with its slower leadpipe expansion.

The 700 sounded fine, only it was overly responsive on some notes like top-of-the-staff Ab, which would break up very soon. I talked to the maker about it, and two reasons were given for the problems not occuring on the 981:

The 981 has a guard wire extending up on the top bow.

The 981 has a much more rigid (and heavy) structure due to the routing of the compensating system’s tubing.

Stiffness and weight act as wolfs’ dampers.

As for the OP’s problem: you probably came up with the cheapest and yet very efficient solution yourself, when you wedged the leadpipe of your old tuba with cork. Try something similar with the Thor. If it doesn’t help, at least the procedure is fully reversible.

Klaus

[Mike-ICR]

I did a leadpipe mod once where the player wanted the peadpipe moved up and off the bell. He eventually returned complaining about the vibration. First I added a small brace between the bell and leapipe. That didn't work so I tried adding a heavier receiver. That didn't work. My last attempt was to install a long sound plate style brace between the bell and leadpipe (similar in comncept to the sound plate braces seen on heavy weight custom trumpets). It basically took the place of the original spoon solder joint. It was made of thick sheet brass (1/8"?) that was cut to the bell contour and I brazed 2 flanges along the length on both sides to connect to the bell and leadpipe. It wasn't an easy or cheap fix but it worked. I would go and see your favorite tech and have them make a rough mock-up first. Even just a few larger braces soldered in place to see f you're on the right track.

Good luck.

[Frank Ortega]

Any other thoughts?

I did go back to the cork which seems to do the job.

Frank