bloke wrote:Rotary tubas (even "well-built" ones) don't take to kindly to that (jacked-up linkage / bent-or-broken rotor stems / etc.), and top-action piston tubas (when they hit the deck) end up with their slides all jacked up - which also really messes up the valve casings...and the bell - usually - is in the way of easily repairing badly-jacked valve casings on top-action tubas.
Understand now. Makes logical sense too: In a front-action pistol tuba, the valves are nicely hidden in the middle, and pretty safe from being tweaked.
In our school, the three (soon to be four) tubas have fared pretty well over the last three years. One of the Jupiter 378s was put down too hard on the bell, and is very slightly wrinkled. Probably not even worth repairing. Another Jupiter had lost the screws that hold the valve pack to the frame, and one of the valve casings became slightly bent, making the valve sticky (not full-on stuck, just sticky). Local tech straightened it out. Lesson learned: Apply loctite to these screws.
Instrument survival all depends on the individual student. We have students who destroy any instrument you give them (so they get really old ones that can't be made worse, or they have to bring their own instruments). We also have students that improve their loaner instruments (by cleaning them, or their parents bring them to a store to get overhauled and repaired, or they return them with a new pack of reeds and a new cleaning swab). Most of the students are reasonably careful, with occasional lapses of common sense. One of the skills of a band director is to know which students to trust with expensive instruments, like tubas or bari saxes.
tofu wrote:They did tell us they were tubas and to please try not to drown out the rest of the band!
True story: The students who sit in front of my son's tuba section complained to the teacher a while ago: the low brass is playing too loud, it's making their ears hurt. My son got reprimanded by the school band teacher in front of the class for that. When he told his tuba teacher (a well known TubeNet personality), his teacher said something like "That's my boy! Do it again!" Appropriate smilies:
KiltieTuba wrote:2. Does your band room use french horns? Don't these have rotary valves? Or are you using mellophones and ballad horns?
We have quite a few french horns (the instruments, not the players). You're right, our local repair guy does work on those (he overhauled them a few years ago, just in case they are ever needed). But he does refuse to work on rotary tubas; that's odd. Since we are only a concert band (not marching), we have no mellophones etc.
Sadly, we rarely have french horn players. For some reason, there is no tradition of doing so, and trumpet kids are very reluctant to move to the horn. This is particularly sad since the wife of our band teacher is a very accomplished french horn player and teacher herself. The only time we have one is is if there is a student who is already selected that instrument, and is taking private lessons.
By the way, similar things happen to double reeds: Even though we have a few loaner oboes, no kids ever want to take up oboe or bassoon. This year, we have one oboe player, and again: he's taking private lessons and using his own instrument. We just decided to buy one or two loaner bassoons, and next school year we'll try to add at least one oboe and bassoon to the band. The funny thing is that the neighboring middle school (same district, different band teacher) has a handful of double reeds. I guess that's just because they have a tradition of doing so. For the same reason, our band director tries to always have one 8th and one 7th grader each in the tuba and bari sax sections, so there is continuity.
