Reynolds Contempora questions...

[kegmcnabb]

Howdy,

I found a neat little Reynolds Contempora Eb. It dates from 1959 and is in great shape. Pitch is quirky but manageable. It has got a great full sound and a good bottom end. I had been saving for a more expensive horn but decided that this would handle my needs well enough. I probably don’t need anything more for polkas or Dixie. I do have a couple of questions however; that I hope my fellow TubeNetters can help me with.

1. There is this cool little first valve device. It has an odd push-me-pull-you bracket to grab for intonation adjustment but it also has a piston with a spring that seems to be for returning the first valve to a predetermined setting (see pics below). Has anyone seen one of these before? Can you tell me how it works and what kind of maintenance and adjustments it will need? There is a set screw as well, although I am not sure what it sets.

2. The recording bell is cool and will be great (as mentioned above) in Dixie and polka settings, but did Reynolds offer an upright bell? That could be kind of neat, too. Anybody have one for sale? Anybody know another upright bell that might fit? The collar measures 5 ½ inches.

3. It has no case. I figure I will get a gig bag…maybe a Dolly Bag as no one else seems to offer a bag for recording bell tubas. Any suggestions? Again, is there another brand case that might fit? I am a strong believer in hard shell cases.




Thanks,

[phaymore]

Reynolds did make a upright bell for their Eb. When I was in college I was helping out at a middle school in town and found a horn just like your sitting in the corner. The school had no need for it so they let me take it for the rest of the semester. Nice horn, the intonation was pretty good on the one I played. It did have an upright bell and the spring thing on the first valve. I never could get the slide greased up well enough to allow the spring to work as it should.

It looks like you got yourself a good horn. Hope you enjoy it!

[kegmcnabb]

OK,

A quick Google found what is apparently an upright Contempora bell for sale at this url:
http://contempora.vliakmon.com/
However, I can't for the life of me figure out how to contact/order/purchase or anything from this page. I tried removing the contempora from the url to just www.vliakmon.com thinking that would be a homepage but it just comes up blank.

Any ideas?

[ThomasDodd]

OK,

A quick Google found what is apparently an upright Contempora bell for sale at this url:
http://contempora.vliakmon.com/
However, I can't for the life of me figure out how to contact/order/purchase or anything from this page. I tried removing the contempora from the url to just www.vliakmon.com thinking that would be a homepage but it just comes up blank.

Any ideas?

It's a link to ebay?
http://search.ebay.com/contempora_W0QQ

[Lew]

That is a cool little horn. Donna Altieri www.altieribags.com will custom make gig bags for the same price as her regular tuba bags. You can probably get a 1 piece made for this, but she has made 2 piece bags for my large recording bell tubas. Give her a call or send her an email and she will help you make sure to get the right measurements.

[MaryAnn]

Depending on how big the bell is, you might be able to make yourself a "hard-ish" case using a wheeled garbage can with lid. You foam-fit the tuba (protected by a garbage bag, of course) and have an instantaneous wheeled hard case, at very little expense. I know one guy did this with his MW 182 F, but that's a really small tuba. Just an idea.

MA

[iiipopes]

Cool! I want one!

Here's my interpretation as applied to a BBb tuba: the 1st valve slide is cut a bit shorter than a conventional full step slide, then this two-way spring is added to the valve slide. You adjust it so that the slide is pulled out a little bit to get the full step down, like open Bb to Ab or F to Eb. Then when you play a note that is inherently flat, like the 5th partial 2nd space C, you push in to sharpen the pitch to where it should be. When you play a note that is inherently sharp, like 12 G or D, you pull some to tune it in, and for 1-3 C or low F or for 123 B nat or low E, you pull it all the way to tune the note in.

For Eb tuba it would be to push in to bring up the flat 5th partial 4th line F, and pull some for 12 C or low G, and all the way for 1-3 bottom of staff F and 2nd ledger line BBb, and 123 1st ledger line E nat and low A nat.

Since the 12 valve combination is marginally sharp, and on a BBb tuba the fifth partial 2nd line B nat is usually marginally flat, I'm not so sure it would be required on that note, as the catalog promotes, however. So this leaves, as a practicality, only one note you would push in. Since we're all used to pulling slides, it kind of knocks the cost effectiveness of the little device out of the water, doesn't it! But it's still neat, and I still want one, especially on an Eb tuba to play the octaves in tune with a Bb tuba on the affected notes, and especially in a community band setting where, God love them, very few of the tubists pull or lip to get notes in tune. So I match them and let the director deal with it.

BTW: did you notice the typo in the catalog listing the fingering for low F as 123 instead of 1-3?

Not to fear: the same concept is used by Fender on its higher model Stratocasters to keep the whammy in place: you replace one of the tremolo springs with what is called a "Trem-setter," and it does the same thing: automatically returns the whammy to the same position after you either pull or push on the whammy bar.