M-W adjustable thumb ring: none of the above

[cambrook]

...and even more comfortable (I hope) will be one of these:

Voight thumb ring 1.tiff

Voight thumb ring 2.tiff

http://www.voigt-brass.de/shop/musiconl ... /11/12/0/0" target="_blank

It looks to me like MW have taken these and altered them to be an "L" shape, and the result is that the ring is always vertical. It is OK, but I prefer to have the ring at an angle like it is on most tubas.
I have ordered one of the 2nd style to try on my Baer, when it is done I'll let you know well it works and take some photos.

Cheers,

Cam

[roweenie]

Revisiting a necro-thread......

I'm trying to use a Voigt adjustable thumbring, but in this particular instance the ring is placed too high for comfort in activating the 5th valve thumb lever.

A M-W one would work well, but I won't hold my breath in obtaining one.

Is it possible to show a picture of what you mean here?

[mikalengen]

The best feature of a Meinl Weston thumb ring is its detatchability. Have been playing a MW2000 for 14 years. Removed the ring on day three, and never looked back.

Removed it by accident on my Alex 4/4, didn't see any reason to put i back on.

What is really the purpose of the thumb ring?

[hup_d_dup]

This came with my Besson 993. Attaches to the 4th valve slide. It can move up and down the slide, and rotate around the slide but the offset angle of the ring is fixed.

Thumb ring.jpg

Hup

[Rick Denney]

The best feature of a Meinl Weston thumb ring is its detatchability. Have been playing a MW2000 for 14 years. Removed the ring on day three, and never looked back.

Removed it by accident on my Alex 4/4, didn't see any reason to put i back on.

What is really the purpose of the thumb ring?

That works for some, but not for others. I've tried on some instruments to get used to not having a thumb ring, but I find myself constantly missing it. Humans have opposable thumbs, and that is a trait of the higher primates for a reason. The thumb ring lets us use them.

I prefer fixed thumb rings because they are less fiddly. The thumb ring on my HIrsbrunner is fabulous--made from something like 10mm brass wire curved into a 2" ring. The ring on my B&S is similar, and even my new Eastman has a ring made from round brass wire. My Holton? Not so much. When I had work done on the tuba, I forgot to reposition it, and have never gotten to it. My (former) Miraphone came with a fixed ring, but when I lived in San Antonio and could visit Orpheus Music any time I wanted (at a time when Orpheus had moved from Sunnyvale and was the Miraphone importer), I was able to obtain an adjustable thumb ring intended for, I think, a 188. When I had the dents ironed out on the Miraphone, we installed that ring in place of the old one. That got rid of the really sharp edges that were uncomfortable, but introduced the fiddliness of an adjustable ring. (I used the old thumb ring on a tuning stick I made for a Vespro Bb tuba that I owned for a while.) My Yamaha 621 is also adjustable, and the adjustment there is critical to the thumb trigger for the fifth valve. Yup, it's fiddly and will get loose at the worst possible time. Both of the adjustable rings in my history were adjustable for rotation only, being mounted using threaded studs with a lock nut.

I never had one that clamped onto valve-branch tubing, but looked favorably on that design for my (now former) York Master.

Rick "who doesn't want to depend on the left hand for basic stabilization" Denney

[GC]

This came with my Besson 993. Attaches to the 4th valve slide. It can move up and down the slide, and rotate around the slide but the offset angle of the ring is fixed.

Thumb ring.jpg

Hup

A friend had one of those. It would not stay in place until he tightened it to the point where the 4th valve slide wouldn't move. Eventually he removed it altogether and got used to playing without it.

[Matt Good]

Meinl-Weston piston tubas feature an adjustable thumb ring that offers movement in a radius around a center point - the center point being a holding jig that is attached to the #1 slide. That device offers many positional options, with the exception being "a position directly in the center of the field of adjustment".

A new flange with no offset (just a chunk of straight 5/16" brass rod...borrowed from TubaTinker) and brazed to the same style of threads as is on the factory "off-set" flange" offers the option of putting the thumb ring in the center of the adjustment field.

ahhhhh...comfy!

Could you please post a photo?

-Matt

[Rick Denney]

Rick:

Re those fiddly adjustable rings: If they are strong enough to be comparable to a fixed ring, adjust them to where you are *certain* you want them to live forever, then solder them together. This can solve the problem of the parts coming loose, and is reversible. If you mark everything really well and are willing to remove the base from the bell (or tube or whatever) you can silver solder them together. Problem solved, but if you don't end up liking it you will have to start over with new parts. (Or at lease *I* would have to. I have not been very successful at disassembling and cleaning up brazed parts.)

Re huge rings: I have never seen one that is *solid* wire. All of them I have had to work with have been fairly thick-walled (2 mm) nickel silver tubes. I have never played with one produced by (or for) Hirsbrunner, but I have three right here from Cerveny, Kurath, and B&S that all weigh only a few ounces. Rings this "beefy" made from solid wire would probably weigh about a half a pound.

[I have heard that tubes of a certain thickness (as a percentage of tube diameter) are stronger than solids (made from the same material) when you are looking at deformation of a ring shape (either folding or distorting its roundness). Do you know whether this is true? I would like to know for sure, so I can more accurately channel Cliff Clavin at my local bar. ]

Typed up a response; got lost.

3/8"x6" to make a ring is about 3 ounces.

Tubes are not stronger than solid wire of the same diameter. They are stiffer with respect to weight, but not stronger. More material is always stiffer and stronger, but not always in proportion to the extra weight. Stiffness is how much it deflects under stress, strength is how much stress it can carry without yielding.

I'm sure the rings are as you describe--I've never cut one apart--and I'm also sure they are more than stiff and strong enough.

Rick "recalling hundreds of discussions about the stiffness of bicycle tubes" Denney