Designers / Inventors again....

[MaryAnn]

I got drafted to play euph in the local brass band, again. Used to before The Demise that took five years of my life. But I still have the same problem, in that I'm not strong enough to heist it, my lap is too low, and I've generally ended up with a board on my lap with enough padding to get it to the right height. A bit of a problem if one has to stand up after a piece, which obviously occurs more than once in a concert. So, I looked online. Found something called a Stewart euph stand that doesn't look like it would be balanced. Nothing else.

So in my beady little pipsqueak brain I came up with an idea. It is a miniature of a wire music stand on the bottom (three very short legs, folds up like a music stand, adjusts up/down with a shaft) but on the top instead of the desk there is a trough like you see on tuba stands, that the bow would sit in. Seems very usable to me....sits on the chair between your legs which will work just great if you don't happen to be wearing a skirt or kilt. I'm trying to figure out how to get one of these put together as a prototype to see if it is sturdy enough to work. I suppose for the standing for applause problem the trough could just be tied on to the bow with velcro. And the little legs could just have a stop on them instead of a click stop device, so that they spread when weight is put on and fall together when weight is taken off. Trough (I don't know what the official name of that is, but you know what I mean) could be removable for storage.

[Rick F]

When I was still playing my YEP-641, which has a low lead-pipe, I used a piece of rigid foam cut from a swimming noodle (see below). Then I covered this foam wedge in black gaf tape.
I took that piece of rigid foam (covered in black gaf tape), and made a strap of velcro so I could attach it to the bottom bow. It worked pretty well. It's just a bit in the way of emptying water from the horn—or pulling slides—but I can slide it frontwards or backward a bit to allow access to slide or emptying water.

When packing up my horn in its case, I removed the wedge and slipped it inside the bell.

Here's a picture of the 'swimming noodle' I mentioned:



... I used the thicker one which is blue in this picture

This raises my horn up off my thigh about 2 inches. See pics below:

[MaryAnn]

That's worth a try for the cost of a noodle. Thanks. I did look at Ergo but damn they are expensive for what you get.

[scottw]

"So in my beady little pipsqueak brain I came up with an idea. It is a miniature of a wire music stand on the bottom (three very short legs, folds up like a music stand, adjusts up/down with a shaft) but on the top instead of the desk there is a trough like you see on tuba stands, that the bow would sit in. Seems very usable to me....sits on the chair between your legs which will work just great if you don't happen to be wearing a skirt or kilt."

Why not just use a tuba stand? There are various models that are designed for standing, and thus can be raised high enough to be used with a euph. Perfect solution!