My tuba patch was the most sincere

[basslizard]

The stems on the Eb are definitely different. I pulled them today; took penetrating oil to loosen them up. Was only able to pull the main tuning slide, so I couldn’t dump it in the tub yet. The springs are replacements, only one seems ok. The stems were easy to unscrew. There were corks under the caps of the valves with mismatched stems.

I did get the Beaufort cleaned up and other than the third valve needing soldering, it’s gorgeous. Well, new cork needed on the spit valve, new felts.

I used PB Blaster as the penetrating oil, washed with warm soapy water (dawn) and the with a degreaser, Purple something or other.

[basslizard]

Went to the music store for some new felts for the euphoniums (or baritones) and corks for spit valves. Took both with me. The repair guys asked to keep them to see about fixing the braces on the American Standard and see if they could solder the broken tuning pipe on the third valve on the Beaufort. That’s the only think stopping it from being playable. They will also try to pull the 2nd valve tuning slide. I was going to get a new valve stem for the Buescher Eb but I haven’t checked the correct length yet.

[roughrider]

Please keep posting pictures and text about your journey with these instruments. It is fascinating!

[basslizard]

I had it all written out, took too long, got logged out, now I'm summing up.

The Beauford baritone/euphonium was returned to me as beyond the technician's ability to solder. He suggested hot glue or epoxy to seal the knuckle in the last picture I posted. The question now is do I try hot glue, or maybe find it a home with someone who wants to tinker. I can't bear to turn it into a lamp as keeps being suggested. It has a lovely tone so long as you don't need the third valve...

The American Standard is getting braces repaired/replaced to stabilize all of that tubing. Most of the bracing was faulty, and a new cork on the water key.

I found a tub in the garage that I'm going to soak the very large and heavy Buescher Eb tuba in, and have plans for using airline tubing to snake through the detritus in it, and then I'll work more on pulling the slides. The braces are fragile, so I am trying to be very careful in how I put pressure on the stuck slides. Still need to measure for the correct valve stem length for a replacement.

My son's pawnshop special Etude trombone finally gave up the ghost. It's warped and the tuning slide solder gave way. It would cost twice what I paid and almost as much as a new one to fix. My husband didn't want to go pawnshopping with me even though I know there are at least three really nice trombones in a couple of the shops.... so my thrifty heart is bruised by having paid for a brand new Yamaha student model tenor. At least it's sturdy, but I could have gotten a better price on something used....

So now I've got another horn to experiment with. I'm eyeing an inexpensive bench vise, youtube silver soldering lessons... as if I don't already have enough expensive hobbies that I barely have time for...

[basslizard]

I sealed the knuckle on the Beaufort with painter’s tape and it works. I made some little felts and stopped the clanking if the pistons without changing the depth of the stems. Next I think I will actually go ahead with the hot glue; it’ll seal better than tape without permanent ill-effects like epoxy would have.

I’m stuck inside by a winter storm with several dozen tamales, nowhere I need to be, so I’m torturing the family with music lessons.

[basslizard]

I sealed the knuckle on the Beaufort with painter’s tape and it works. I made some little felts and stopped the clanking if the pistons without changing the depth of the stems. Next I think I will actually go ahead with the hot glue; it’ll seal better than tape without permanent ill-effects like epoxy would have.

I’m stuck inside by a winter storm with several dozen tamales that I made for Thanksgiving, nowhere I need to be, so I’m torturing the family with music lessons.

[basslizard]

It's playable! It lives!

The 1916 Buescher E-flat tuba

And I've seen just how many things aren't posting from my phone, or are posting twice.

The long soapy soak in the tub, combined with forcing water through the airline tubing with pressure and various sized snakes... I got it clean enough to play. That got me excited enough to run down to the hardware store with the valves, and to find a makeshift "valve stem". Hey, it's adjustable in length. It's been about a week, so I did manage to drive the 80 miles to the music store for spare parts, only to find that all of the repair techs were off that day. Someone did find me a valve stem and button, and I'm flinching at the mess she made going through their parts drawers. I tried to wave her off so she wouldn't mess up their nicely organized trays of various old parts and pieces, but she was determined.

I'm teaching myself how to play it - I printed out a fingering chart and some treble clef E-flat tuba music.

The mid and low tones are glorious. The upper register has an annoying vibration. I put some clear tape over the perforation, and that changed the pitch of the entire horn.

I've made myself some felts for it, as well as using a few store-bought ones. The replacement springs that were in it do seem to be an issue. I think they're part of the upper register vibration issue. Maybe?

At this point it's hard to tell if she's pitched to A-440. At first I was using an ill-fitting tuba mouthpiece, please note the sparkly gold plastic Kelly-thing in the photos. Once I realized my son left the bass trombone home, I borrowed his larger cup mouthpiece. The shank fits well, although it's clearly not the right sized cup and rim. If I truly fall in love with this tuba I may see about getting an appropriate shank for my Sellmansberger Solo.

I'm encouraged, and having a heck of a lot of fun. I'm not looking for something to play in a symphony, so that's all that really matters.

[basslizard]

I almost forgot - another picture of my improvised valve stem. I had to keep checking the length, and tightening the nut. The felt was not needed, and was removed.

[Donn]

Cool! Speaking of Kelly mouthpieces, they stock a "small shank", but in my experience it wasn't small enough - I had to sand it down considerably to get it to even enter the receiver. I suppose this isn't a really universal standard. My little Italian Eb may be extra small - a bass trombone mouthpiece works but rides pretty high.

As for playing Eb - it's kind of unusual to see treble clef music for it, but obviously not unheard of.

[basslizard]

Since the bass trombone mouthpiece shank fits the tuba so well, I'm tempted to try getting the British shank for my Solo cup, plus a spare stainless rim for the Sympnony cup/shank that I ordered a while back. I'd love a larger cup and rim than a plain tenor mouthpiece for the baritone and euphonium as well.

[windshieldbug]

Small Eb mouthpieces were closer to Bass Trombone mouthpieces than modern Tuba mouthpieces. Find a way to try your desires out before you buy and end up getting the dreaded Eb flats with too big a rim and a cup.

[basslizard]

Small Eb mouthpieces were closer to Bass Trombone mouthpieces than modern Tuba mouthpieces. Find a way to try your desires out before you buy and end up getting the dreaded Eb flats with too big a rim and a cup.

When I stole my son's large shank bass trombone mouthpiece, I didn't look too closely. It's actually a large shank baritone mouthpiece. I've been using it ever since. My son's going to have to make due with his other bass trombone mouthpiece. I'm able to hit all the same notes with it that I could when I was trying to stuff a tuba mouthpiece into it, and the higher notes are much easier to reach, although they sound dreadful with the odd overtones they seem to have. If I'm feeling saucy, I will make some YouTube videos.

The baritone and euphonium both use a small shank trombone mouthpiece, so I've been using a Bach something or other. I'm not sure it's ideal, but it works for now.

I have learned so much with this whole project. I freely admit, I thought baritones and euphoniums were the same thing. I held them as 'tubas for wimps'. Now I love them both, and I can hear the difference, and see why they'd have different uses. I've learned how to make water key corks, felts, and more about cleaning than ever. I made the mistake of using a little Tarn X on the silver plate while trying to clean up the scrollwork, and it removes the patina too well. So I'm sticking to the Hagerty spray-on polish and gently wiping with a microfiber towel. That leaves a nice patina while still cleaning it, adding a little shine, and protecting it from tarnish.

Not sure what I want to do about the Buescher. It's brass, but I can't tell if it's lacquered or raw. I don't want to aim for bright and shiny, but I do need to get the worst of the oxidation off. There's very likely some red rot in places.

[basslizard]

I hate to drag up old threads, but I don’t really want to have to start posting all over again.

To sum up, while I had the Eb Buescher playable, only the main tuning slide was free. I took it with my when I was buying drumheads for my younger teenager on the off chance the brass repair guy was there (he only works on Saturdays). Normally he Pooh-poohs my project horns, but I knew I at least needed new springs, and I wanted to see what else he thought I might try to unstick the other tuning slides. His eyes lit up when he saw the tuba, and he said he could patch the rip in the bell, do a full chemical flush, pull the first and third valve tuning slides but wasn’t going to go to extremes on the second tuning slide. His excitement made me trust him, plus his reasonable quote of $500 worst case scenario won me over.

Then I got a cold or something, just as a certain virus started spreading in our state and wound up quarantined for a couple of weeks. I picked up the tuba today after over a month. I was in a bit of a hurry to not linger in the store, so I didn’t check if he was in, or play test the tuba. Big mistake. He freed the first and second valve tuning slides. They now leak. I mean, put the ends in a bowl of water and blow bubbles leak. The first slide leaks where the joint has come unsoldered and the third valve now has a leaky patch in the crook of it. To be fair, it was a little mangled before he broke it, but it didn’t seem to leak.

I paid close to six hundred dollars for this, for a horn that I will have to do more repairs to in order to play it. I think he got in over his head and just quit before he had to spend so many hours working on it that I wouldn’t be ok with the price tag. I just wish he’d said something. I know how much work this tuba needed, and now it just needs different work. I totally understand the hazards of pulling stuck tuning slides, but I am a little shocked to be given back a tuba with such fixable leaks. It’s clearly poor soldering that is the culprit.

Do I hot glue the leaks for now? It will be weeks before I get back to the city. Should I ask him to fix the leaks?

This is a project horn, a fun horn that I have seriously enjoyed learning to play. It’s so different from my Jupiter Bb.

[basslizard]

Pictures

[basslizard]

First and third slides

[basslizard]

I miss my mismatched pearl buttons.

[Donn]

My limited experience with this: paid for the repair and rushed out without trying it, got home and it didn't play, took it back the next day ... never did get a really satisfactory fix out of it.

I wasn't sorry I'd brought it back, it seems wrong to just quietly accept it. But the place is only a 15 minute drive, so while it was more or less a waste of time, it wasn't very much time.

I've never used hot glue, seems like it should work. I have used paraffin canning wax, not for anything exactly like that though. Shellac or some kind of lacquer might do it, too. It looks like it might be within reach as an intro solder job, but the mess I've made of my instrument soldering makes me a little hesitant to recommend.

[basslizard]

Here’s my hot glue solder job on the knuckle of my euphonium. It is holding so far. It wouldn’t take a massive amount of heat to melt it off, so it seemed better than JB weld.

[scottw]

The patch and the soldering job have to be among the worst I have ever seen by a "professional" tech! Hard though it may be, forget that your bucks are out the window and find someone competent to do your work, even if it means shipping the horn. Nobody should have someone producing those results working on an instrument.

[basslizard]

I'll be honest, I feel a little defeated here. That was more money than I'd wanted to put into it in the first place - I'd been planning on waiting to do more than a functioning water key until I could take it to a real tuba repairman - I found one, in the heart of the area COVID-19 outbreak. So rather than driving 4+ hours each way, I figured I'd wait until I needed to take my oldest to see the nearby university. I figured it to be around $1000 in repairs. Also that my husband would have other plans for $1000 since I have a functioning Bb tuba and this is a hobby for me, not a profession. So my disappointment is profound. I went from a functional-if-out-of-tune Eb tuba that was a lot of fun to goof around on to a lamp. An objet d'art. And it's just going to have to stay that way for a while. I'm looking at the possibility of moving in the coming months, if my husband transfers. We've established a new record - 5 years in one place. Usually we move every 2-4 years.