Trimming a leadpipe

[The Bone Ranger]

Does anyone have any experiences trimming a leadpipe?

Here is a picture of my Rudy 3/4 CC, with the part I'm considering having trimmed.



Suppose I have the leadpipe unsoldered, and then have approximately one inch of straight tubing cut off of the indicated section, and then have the pipe re-soldered in it's new position (with a resultant new, lower playing position).

Apart from a new, lower playing position, what other effect will this have on the instrument?

I'm mostly wondering about intonation, and not the overall pitch of the instrument, as the tuning slide on this horn was significantly shortened at one point, and I will shortly have it returned to a longer length.

I'm both not a good enough mathematician nor experienced enough at horn modification (I won't be doing this work myself, to be clear) to know just what might happen.

Any thoughts and experiences would be appreciated.

Andrew

[oedipoes]

I do not like the idea of cutting a leadpipe ... why not filling with lead or pitch and bending it into the new position?

[The Bone Ranger]

Thanks everyone for your responses, especially you Bloke, for your thoughts.

I'm pretty sure the section indicated is dead-straight (I think the photo is a little deceptive), but I don't have the tuba with me at the moment, so I can't check for sure.

As it stands, I do not have a half inch to spare in the tuning slide. It seems a previous owner had a unique approach to playing, and had the main and 4th tuning slides shortened significantly. I'm actually having it restored back to factory length shortly.

I think the point that you, Bloke, make about this mod only gaining approximately 1 inch of vertical travel is probably an important one. I'm looking for a lower mouthpiece position, but 1 inch may not be enough, and I'd hate to have to alter it a second time after having it trimmed. Seems to me that it'd be easier for me to raise a position that's a little low, because I sure as heck can't lower this horn any further than I am. Between big legs and a short torso, I simply can't get my legs wide enough to get comfortable. Perhaps if I'd ridden horses as a child…

Andrew

[The Bone Ranger]

We all do what we have to do to play the tuba, eh ?

We sure do. A colleague of mine doesn't see the fuss when he plays it. I've spent the better part of 3 years contemplating an alteration. Perhaps I'm more fussy than the average bear. Being a professional trombone player for a large part of my life, I can get the mouthpiece to exactly where I want it. I can do this on any other tuba I've picked up (Yamaha, Hirsbrunner, B&S et al). Not so much with this one.

Do you have any sort of "playing stand" ?

I have one of these:



It's strictly used for stand-up gigs. It's terrific for that purpose. However, it will not telescope low enough to be useful when sitting, and even if I could, the bottom bow would still be too far away from my body to be able to reach the mouthpiece comfortably. That has as much to do with the receiver being close to the bell on these style of tubas as it does with the height of the pipe.

The stand was what got me thinking about the lead pipe position in the first place. Standing up using the stand, I can get the tuba both close to my body and low enough to achieve a very comfortable position. If I hold the instrument in this position and try to sit down, however, it looks more like I'm laying on the couch with my feet on the coffee table…

Andrew

[The Bone Ranger]

I don't know which stand that is...

The K&M stand will go down pretty low.

It's a K&M. Not useful for sitting with any tuba I have come into contact with...

Andrew