Creating a Tuba Wiki database with all tubas there are

[toeter]

Hi!

As I had some time to spare, I decided to see if this tuba-wiki plan would now attract some people who are willing to contribute.
There are no other instrument databases on the web right now that I know of and also there are no other initiatives to create one that I know of.
My idea is to gather facts. So bore size, bell diameter, height, weight, anything that can be measured. And photos. If this is relevant is for everyone to decide for him/herself. I think it is, for example to identify a tuba that you find somewhere on a flee market (including eBay). Also, it might prove that the bits of knowledge many people here apparently have, will build a sort of coherent picture of tuba manufacturing through the years.

Maybe a special section could be created for personal experience with the instruments, but right now that's not my goal, nor do I know how to create something like that in an orderly and readable way.

I think tubas should be listed under their official model number. If a manufacturer changed the way the instrument is built over the years, it should be mentiond in one article.

I think it would be a great start if Tubenetters just entered what they know (with certainty) about their own instruments. And please help create templates to enter info nicely. What I entered was just while fooling around and is in no way definitive.

I hope you guys will help! Check http://tubadatabase.wikispaces.com" target="_blank" target="_blank

[chronolith]

I was thinking of something similar to your database, but much more specific. In fact right down to the serial number. This would facilitate a way of tracking ownership of horns and could provide a mechanism for posting about lost or stolen instruments with all of the specific information on the instrument. Every member of your database would then only be responsible for posting the info about their own horns. Your pool of information about instruments would essentially build itself.

Players in general like to brag about their horns and this would essentially give them a showcase. It would also smooth out the process of putting a horn up for sale without having to expend more effort than is necessary. Horn up for sale? Flag it for sale. Horn stolen? Flag it as such. We could even provide instructions and suggestions for notifiying law enforcement, pawn shops, ebay, etc the second a horn is reported stolen.

I develop CMS systems and see these kinds of projects often. I see a user built taxonomy system for makes and models that allows users to input information about a horn that is not in the database, but that automatically populates if the horn is in the system already. The individual user could then check the specs against their own and make adjustments as they see fit for their particular instrument.

Since the variations in our instrument of choice sometimes comes right down to the particular instrument and it's modifications, I think a database of individual horns is the way to go. I am happy to contribute in any way I can.

[PMeuph]

I was thinking of something similar to your database, but much more specific. In fact right down to the serial number. This would facilitate a way of tracking ownership of horns and could provide a mechanism for posting about lost or stolen instruments with all of the specific information on the instrument. Every member of your database would then only be responsible for posting the info about their own horns. Your pool of information about instruments would essentially build itself.

I wonder if this could not be somewhat of a legal problem. I''m sure some scammer could find a way to try and use such information to his advantage.

[Michael Bush]

A related computer programme question:

I only own one database application, the one Apple issued in 1991 (FileMaker Pro?), which worked well for me until 2008. I still have computers that can run it, but I hardly ever use them.

Are there databases integrated in some browsers, which could be used for this planned tuba register?

There should be several categories for each tuba, among these availability in used and new conditions in various markets.

As for the large number of tuba models made, then very few are available to persons not going to conferences and big commercial shows. Wasn’t it Cheek and Chong that were asked which kind of fun stuff they preferred: “The available kind!”

Klaus

Klaus, you had an impressive collection of pictures with at least some information about them at one time, on Yahoo, I believe. But I can't find it now...

[chronolith]

I was thinking of something similar to your database, but much more specific. In fact right down to the serial number. This would facilitate a way of tracking ownership of horns and could provide a mechanism for posting about lost or stolen instruments with all of the specific information on the instrument. Every member of your database would then only be responsible for posting the info about their own horns. Your pool of information about instruments would essentially build itself.

I wonder if this could not be somewhat of a legal problem. I''m sure some scammer could find a way to try and use such information to his advantage.

The serial number certainly does not have to be displayed. It only has to be visible to the owner of the instrument, and provides a unique record that separates one horn from another. That's a good catch though PMeuph.

[imperialbari]

Klaus, you had an impressive collection of pictures with at least some information about them at one time, on Yahoo, I believe. But I can't find it now...

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Yo ... %20format/

[toeter]

Hi,

Since you seem to have more technical knowledge than I do (probably way way more because I know hardly anything about software) could you tell me if it would be possible to combine your idea and mine in a wiki? For example by having a certain number of levels, like brand-model-unique instrument? For me the "model" level is what I would like to see in the first place, possibly the "unique instrument" level should just be an appendix at the bottom of the "model" page.

I think going as far as publishing serial numbers and keeping a register of instrument status (stolen/sold to/etc etc) is too ambitious. "for sale" and "stolen" messages are best put on Tubenet I reckon.

I'd like to ask again if you tubenet people could go to http://tubadatabase.wikispaces.com" target="_blank and add your instrument. Also, please review the template pages and add what you think is relevant.

I was thinking of something similar to your database, but much more specific. In fact right down to the serial number. This would facilitate a way of tracking ownership of horns and could provide a mechanism for posting about lost or stolen instruments with all of the specific information on the instrument. Every member of your database would then only be responsible for posting the info about their own horns. Your pool of information about instruments would essentially build itself.

Players in general like to brag about their horns and this would essentially give them a showcase. It would also smooth out the process of putting a horn up for sale without having to expend more effort than is necessary. Horn up for sale? Flag it for sale. Horn stolen? Flag it as such. We could even provide instructions and suggestions for notifiying law enforcement, pawn shops, ebay, etc the second a horn is reported stolen.

I develop CMS systems and see these kinds of projects often. I see a user built taxonomy system for makes and models that allows users to input information about a horn that is not in the database, but that automatically populates if the horn is in the system already. The individual user could then check the specs against their own and make adjustments as they see fit for their particular instrument.

Since the variations in our instrument of choice sometimes comes right down to the particular instrument and it's modifications, I think a database of individual horns is the way to go. I am happy to contribute in any way I can.

[chronolith]

It's very possible that it is too ambitious.

I just like the idea of leveraging existing resources to provide more services. The community at large I think is very used to using a forum for buying and selling tubas. Same goes for the reporting of lost and stolen instruments. In all honesty I think there are better ways of doing these things but only if the community at large will embrace it.

I was proposing the unique instrument idea for the database as a way to capitalize on what I perceive as a need to handle something better while also building the instrument make/model wiki with little or no effort. It would be laughably easy to produce the content you are seeking if enough owners of instruments would spend a few minutes telling us about the specific instruments they own at the serial number level. What would be presented to the public would simply be a list of makes and models with various ordinal data (make/model/height/weight/bore/bell diameter/finish/# of valves/key/etc). By approaching this from the individual instrument level you would also gain access to a whole new layer of statistical information that would not be available by just tracking makes and models (how many people own this particular make and model/anecdotal data about preferences in various regions around the world/list goes on...).

Again the idea of "give me your serial number and tell me where the horn is right now" is something that an owner would choose to publish only at the time they would offer their horn up for sale... or report as lost or stolen. People often post information like pictures, serial numbers, location of the horn etc in the ads anyway, and on tubenet they are viewable publicly. I propose to make buy/sell/lost/stolen information available only to members of the community, with activity tracked.

Bottom line, yeah it is a lot to take on, and right now it is all pie in the sky thinking on my part. Just an expression of something I wish existed. Ambitious? Yeah. But I see it as two people pushing a 150lb rock up a hill rather than two people each pushing their own 100lb rock up the same hill.