Minor Alterations of a Holton 345

[tubatom91]

I bought a very nice Holton 345 BBb (4v) from a guy that frequents this board in mid-December of last year, He still has a nice one for sale! An odd story about buying this horn, my professor sent me a link to the listing of this horn initially as a casual "hey look at this" and I bit on it, next thing I know I'm cashing savings bonds and pooling my money together and planning a trip to Redwing Minnesota the day that I got home for Winter break, 6 hours up to MN and some time spent playing the horn and touring around Redwing, then 6 hours home. We finally walked in our house a 2AM, the next day straight to Chicago for tuba Christmas. Since that busy weekend I've been busy playing this Monster in Orchestra and Quintet at college. I loved the way it played but something was a bit off (All the typical complaints of a average 345). I decided to get busy and start modding it out. I'm very lucky to have an awesome repair tech on campus (Carl Thacker), he helped me get the parts and skills needed to make the mods I wanted, first on the list, a super flat C3 (by about 20-25 cents). This problem was remedied by chopping the #1 tuning slide by about an inch-inch.5 (Still plenty of pull to get the pitch down if we went in too far). The next thing addressed was the water keys, before modding the posts were bent way back away from the hole to accommodate the long (too-long) keys, all three were leaking air at a fairly substantial rate (partially due to natural cork). The keys were replaced with some old keys off of some instrument that Carl had had at one point, custom bent and trimmed on the pivot point to fit. Next on the list, noisy/clanking/too much play valve guides, I replaced the original metal guides with Willson parts that screwed in fine and custom shaved them. The next step might be a thought outside the box, The bottom caps (to my knowledge) are not original but are repro's, The stock springs that came in it flopped around on the bottom cap and caused a lot of noise, I put in yamaha coated springs to help but these too wobbled and remained off centered, I fabricated an idea and Carl executed the job perfectly. By measuring the outside diameter of the springs and the inside diameter of the caps he lathed out some plastic inserts that keep the spring centered and fit perfectly. The last thing I might do to this horn is un-solder the leadpipe from the bell. Pic are below to describe the steps I took and for some Horn dorn. I hope this post is well recieved and not too long to read

[Levaix]

Absolutely beautiful! I wish I had money for one of these. And Thacker is great (I'm a U of I student, I bring all my stuff to him). If you ever decide to sell that thing, you'll have to look me up.

[tubatom91]

I forgot to add the results of these mods playing-wise. I find that the flat F has been brought up a bit to the point of being "manageable" and the flat C above it has locked in. The response on the horn has improved quite a bit as well. I was having some trouble "slotting" some notes in the middle register for awhile, after correctly sealing the water keys these problems faded significantly. The valves are a respectable volume now, the noise has been reduced exponentially. I could probably double check all of the valve alignments just to be sure. I wish Alan Baer made a PVAK for these .

Next project: adding a 4th valve to my other BAT

[Rick Denney]

You'll find that the ports are not accurately enough aligned to make the precision of Baer's precision guides worth the trouble. Even if the in-port is perfect, the out-port may not be on some of the valves. The level of precision being touted with the PVAK would really require replacing the Holton valve block with something else.

Talk to Joe Sellmansberger and get him to instruct you on measurements to make. He has my measurements but I highly doubt they will transfer to other Holtons--just not enough consistency with these. My fourth valve was substantially different from the other three. He can provide you with excellent washers to replace the felts that will achieve all that can be achieved in terms of valve alignment.

Rick "whose F is in tune but who also cut the first valve slide" Denney

[Michael Bush]

the flat C above it has locked in.

What happened to the Ab below and Eb above? Were they flat too, or are you now pulling the slide for them?

[tubatom91]

The Eb and Ab are easily lipped or just settled into place, I still need to cut the main slide down a bit to bring the overall pitch up a few cents, I have a much easier time lipping things down rather than up and sometimes do it without thinking anymore.