bloke wrote:Having not played a 26J, logic tells me that the #1 and #3 stems can be crowded towards the #2 stem, but with a #4 stem, there's a fly in the ointment.
The fourth valve is tucked in on the ones I've seen, so that it gets it under the finger by being closer along the finger's axis, rather than being closer to the third valve. Along lines parallel to the fingers, the distances are similar, even if there's a bit more stretch from 3 to 4 as a crow flies.
Chuck G. has a frakentuba made by Larry Minnick that has Keefer outer branches and a four-valve short-action valveset. It is one of those tubas that looks wrong but plays and sounds right. My fingers fell on those valves more easily than on the York Master.
Rick "who's fine with the Holton spread after installing Yamaha buttons" Denney
[quote="bloke"]
There really was no 3XJ series per se, but the 3XJ tubas that WERE similar to the 2XJ tubas were these:
The 30J was an early-1930's top-action design with a recording bell very similar to the (to come later) 20J. The 30J had three regular (long-stroke) top-action pistons.
The 34J was a four regular (long-action) valve version of the 30J (the predecessor to the short-action 24J, I guess...)
The 36J tubas were made in the '30's and featured four front-action regular (long-action) pistons and a recording bell.[quote]
Also I believe I have seen ( or heard of) a 32J, which is the 3 valve version of this 36J.
My 1930 36J plays beautifully. Bought it some years back from Rob Stewart's shop.
They're great horns. I especially like the recording bell since you can turn it in any direction to get the best sound out of the hall, even upwards!
I also use the bit. It makes it real easy to find a comfortable playing position on about any chair (well, almost any chair).
Rick Denney wrote: My fingers fell on those valves more easily than on the York Master.
Before, or after, you installed the cheater flange on the 4th valve?
Before. I was at Chuck's house purchasing the York Master, and had an opportunity to play a number of instruments in his collection.
The issue with the YM is that the leadpipe wraps a bit too much around the bell. Where I have to hold the instrument isn't really compatible with its slanted valve arrangement. My hand approaches at the wrong angle. The Holton is more York-like (and King-like) with the valves lower and arranged vertically. My hand approaches those at the correct angle.
But my ergonomics are just weird, I guess. I never had a problem with the Yamaha 621 F valve arrangement that most consider to be a violation of OSHA requirements.
Playing-wise, on mine the thing that gets me is the phantom water associated with the fourth valve. Did you notice this with this horn? I noticed that the valve block was at more of an angle on that beast than on mine, which is closer to, but is not straight up and down.
bloke wrote:It "looked" fine "before"...It just didn't play very well "before".
btw, If someone has a (priced to sell) c. 7-1/4" diameter male bell collar (only) for a 38K/20K/(maybe?) 22K, 20J, 21J, 24J, 25J that has a groove cut into it, Dr. Sloan might be interested in talking to you.
Joe is correct on both counts. In its previous re-incarnation, it was very pretty. I didn't bring it to Joe to make it LOOK pretty (although, that's always nice, too). I'm much more concerned about "does it help a poor hacker like me sound reasonable".
It would also be nice to have the bell a bit more secure on its perch. Maybe then I could pick up DirectTV on that satellite dish.
Where did I put that Duct Tape?
When I saw the (seemingly original) bell on the 36J I just acquired (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62378), I thought of these posts in this thread. My bell also has no groove, and the evidence seems to say that it was always this way. A groove was a good idea, but perhaps was not original to this design.
