Holton 345 Redux

Repair and modification discussion
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binlove
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Re: Holton 345 Redux — This is Very Long

Post by binlove »

This is a fascinating thread. Thanks for taking the time to document your work and thought process. And good luck with the AC!
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The Big Ben
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by The Big Ben »

I have one raw brass tuba but, when I don't polish it for a year, it doesn't have a 'patina' that is even or close to even everywhere. I'd like to get one of those 'Borodi epoxy lacquer jobs' for $1200 which is buff/clean/lacquer and no minor dent work but that would double the money I have in the instrument. Hoe do you get the "patina" besides just using it and wiping the sweat off of it?

Is the silver on the bell from where the lead pipe is mounted to the rim going to stay? That looks pretty good and a shiny bell seems to be what the people in the audience like the most.
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roweenie
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by roweenie »

the elephant wrote:So the shoulder looks like it is pointing too far to the right
Are you aligning the top bow so that it is perfectly perpendicular to the bell? I don't think that's the way they were originally set up - (at least that's the way it is on my 105). The top bow sits slightly behind the bell on mine.

Image
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day".
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by roweenie »

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Last edited by roweenie on Wed May 18, 2022 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day".
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The Big Ben
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by The Big Ben »

the elephant wrote: And finally — I decided to just shut up and pay for a year of SmugMug. I really like it. It is much better than Photobucket, and for me the cost is both justified and not too spendy to afford. If you try it, you can get 14 days free trial, and then you can very easily get 14 more, so about a month of free use so you can really try it out. I recommend it over imgur (which would be my choice for a free service) or any of the other free hosting services. It seems to me that the days of free anything on the WWW are about gone. If you post as many photos as I do you need a reliable service. And the reliable services do not offer the particular functionality that I need for free or super cheap. My compromise is SmugMug. I hope a year from now I am not cursing their silly name and trying to cancel the service before they charge me again. We shall see.
SmugMug makes it easy to have your own domain name if you want it. I was hosting a bunch of my 40th HS reunion. We are the Class of 1974 from Evergreen HS in Seattle so I got evergreen74.org to make it easy for the people to access. Without the domain name, it would be evergreen74.smugmug.com which should be easy to remember but I kind of wanted a domain name. So I got it.

If you wanted 'the elephant.org', you would have to buy it which would be more than just registering a name. You would pay a fee to the owner of 'the elephant.org' as well as the registering fee. You wouldn't have to pay the extra fee to register 'waderackley.org' because no one owns it yet. Can't remember the costs but just registering and attaching a name isn't too much more. Of course, depending on what you used as your smug mug user name, you could be 'waderackley.smugmug.com' for people trying to access your pictures. SmugMug makes it easy to sell pictures, too. It's all built in and you set the price above the actual cost of the pictures. You can put watermarks on the proofs if you want. Would make it easy to sell things like group orchestra pictures of an event or individual professional portraits of people holding their instruments. You could sell them at any price you want or allow people to download them and print them selves Or not, if you don't plan on doing all of that kind of stuff.

Since my reunion was three years ago, I let the domain registration lapse and I access it at evergreen74.smugmug.com. The reunion pictures are still there but I've used it as a place to show some of my other stuff and as a way to print pictures I want hard copies of since I am all digital these days.
roughrider
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by roughrider »

Please continue to photograph and document the work that you are doing on this horn. It is a fascinating piece and especially to those of us who have absolutely no skills in this repair/re-invent domain. Thanks very much!
1930 King "Symphony" Recording Bass BBb
1916 Holton "Mammoth" Upright Bass BBb
1994 King 2341 Upright Bass BBb
Wedge H2 Solo mouthpieces
Stofer-Geib mouthpieces
DouglasJB
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by DouglasJB »

Are you planning on leaving the valve orientation as it was or change it to a more vertical valve set like the CSO York and popular copies?
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Tubajug
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by Tubajug »

So have you dropped the idea of using that York valve set you were working on? The one with no "bumps" in the ports?
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If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by Tubajug »

What valve would you use instead and why? I'm considering adding a fourth valve for a project I've got in mind.
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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The Big Ben
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by The Big Ben »

the elephant wrote:HOT DAMN, BABY! I just figured out how to resize my images on SmugMug. It is very cool. I don't have to *do* anything. SmugMug automatically stores your pics in like seven sizes. !
Glad it is working for you. Photobucket didn't keep up with new technology. SmugMug is like two or three generations newer technology.
Keep posting the horn repair stuff. Very interesting!
roughrider
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by roughrider »

Keep Posting! This is terrific stuff!
1930 King "Symphony" Recording Bass BBb
1916 Holton "Mammoth" Upright Bass BBb
1994 King 2341 Upright Bass BBb
Wedge H2 Solo mouthpieces
Stofer-Geib mouthpieces
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by DouglasJB »

Just curious, you mentioned having the pistons vertical wouldn't be an option with the horn being flat, woud something such as a shorter lead pipe much like one on a Nirschl? Twisting the horn slightly from its former playing position could provide a little space in the main tuning slide?
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by Tabor »

the elephant wrote:The 45º set that they were built for is ugly (for lack of a better word) and looks strangely out of place on one of these old Holtons.

But the really old front action huge Holtons, like that one on that recent Craigslist listing, and the front action big Yorks had the slanted valves!
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by roughrider »

Awesome! Keep showing and telling us the story of the rebirth of this great horn!
1930 King "Symphony" Recording Bass BBb
1916 Holton "Mammoth" Upright Bass BBb
1994 King 2341 Upright Bass BBb
Wedge H2 Solo mouthpieces
Stofer-Geib mouthpieces
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bisontuba
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by bisontuba »

the elephant wrote:My cat managed to steal my 5th rotor unit and hide it under my bed wrapped in a sock. I just thought I would share that with you. It cost me four hours in the shop that I really needed to use and a boatload of panic.

Stupid cat. Ugh...

Ah, kitties.....
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bisontuba
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by bisontuba »

Hi Wade-
My old cat was Schroeder. Poor fellow got cancer and had to be put down.
Back is still the same (sigh)... carry horns with carry handles and not on the back.
Fascinating the work you are doing/have done....knowing what great work you do ( as evedenced on your old Alex), this horn should be out of this world when you are finished!!
Happy horn work!!
Mark
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The Big Ben
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by The Big Ben »

the elephant wrote:
KiltieTuba wrote:
the elephant wrote:I do not like doing work for other people. I tend to do stuff that makes me happy or challenges me intellectually (like rerouting slide circuits and such). If it is actually well done and has a purpose I can usually sell it. If it is very well done but serves no purpose other than sheer novelty I almost *always* sell it. HA! (As an example of this, I may have already sold my Ab tenor tuba, yet I have not even started work on it and do not anticipate it being completed until Fall of 2018.)

Why do you ask?
You just do very thorough work with what you have.
Thank, Ian. Much appreciated, sir!
+1 I hope someday you can have a workshop that is representative of your skills.
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bort
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by bort »

Wade, you are crazy. Thanks for sharing all of this.

Safe to assume there are no "huge tuba needed" works planned for you this year (calendar year, at least)?
roughrider
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by roughrider »

An awesome read! I am enjoying your posts and look forward to seeing the progress. You have recreated something on your own which is tremendous.
1930 King "Symphony" Recording Bass BBb
1916 Holton "Mammoth" Upright Bass BBb
1994 King 2341 Upright Bass BBb
Wedge H2 Solo mouthpieces
Stofer-Geib mouthpieces
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bort
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Re: Holton 345 Redux

Post by bort »

I can't help but think of this song when reading this (I mean, besides the whole "stealing parts" thing... :))

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