What did you play today?

[bloke]

I'm going to play through my "routine"... ... ...

...and then I'm going to play through some hard mess that I have to play in a couple of weeks...

1st - "cold"

then

2nd - "go back and pick up the pieces"

bloke "in a routine way."

[Heavy_Metal]

That deMeij symphony is a great piece, and was a lot of fun to play. It's one of two symphonies I know of that the composer scored for concert band- the other being James Barnes' third, which I've also played. Anyone know of any others?

Hindemith Symphony in B-flat.

James Barnes wrote nine symphonies, and I believe that they are all for wind band.

My to-do list just got longer.

[MiBrassFS]

Just busted out the Bordogni. It didn’t go horribly.

[arpthark]

That deMeij symphony is a great piece, and was a lot of fun to play. It's one of two symphonies I know of that the composer scored for concert band- the other being James Barnes' third, which I've also played. Anyone know of any others?

Hindemith Symphony in B-flat.

James Barnes wrote nine symphonies, and I believe that they are all for wind band.

My to-do list just got longer.

On the topic of "serious" works by major composers written originally for band (and not transcribed from orchestra), Suite Francaise by Darius Milhaud is near the top of the list.

[sdloveless]

...but - for the few pieces whereby I needed a "big" tuba - I brought THIS,

Hey, @bloke. What is that? I'm sure there's a thread, or threads, wherein you've discussed it, but my searches have been fruitless. Thanks!

[arpthark]

...but - for the few pieces whereby I needed a "big" tuba - I brought THIS,

Hey, @bloke. What is that? I'm sure there's a thread, or threads, wherein you've discussed it, but my searches have been fruitless. Thanks!

not the bloke, but here is a thread:

https://www.tubaforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=8906

[bloke]

Yeah, that's a good thread about it.

The 32-in tall Holton and York tuba bows and bells were virtually identical, and the bells were the same for both the E-flat and B-flat versions.

York offered three valve and four valve top action and three valve and four valve front action versions of both the E flat and B flat configurations, I'm thinking, but I don't really know how many versions Holton offered... My guess is that the earlier the date, the more versions Holton offered, but I honestly don't know a whole lot about Holton - even though this is a Holton instrument.

The bells and bows are so similar between the two makers that some people believe that one of them made all of the bows and bells, but others of us suspect they were just extremely similar, as other makes and types of instruments are also extremely similar.

This particular instrument was probably from the next to last time that Holton recycled this tooling - which was in the 1960s. They sold these as a three valve top action with their standard .665" bore as a student model. (The very last time they recycled this tooling was for the Harvey Phillips stuff.) I'm thinking this tooling dates all the way back to the 1920s, but someone else can correct me.

I did the typical thing where I pasted on a King 2341 valve section and highly adulterated it. Unlike any other of the project horns I've built for myself, this one was absolutely "free style" (which is not like me). I just started sticking stuff together - though carefully and precisely, never ran into a roadblock, and - astonishingly - never had to take anything back apart and put it back together a different way. Part of what I attempted to accomplish (and succeeded at accomplishing) was seeing how skinny I could make this instrument from front to back, as the King valveset is sunken quite deeply into the body.

C tubas feature fifth rotors which are tuned to play a low F a whole tone below fourth valve low G. Since B-flat tubas already play low F just fine with the fourth valve alone, I decided to use the fifth valve to solve the next most pressing problem which is the 2-4 vs. 5-3-4 intonation issue. Others warned me against this setup, and told me that I would never be able to learn how to play it, but the fifth valve is actually the same as what some people would consider to be a sixth valve and is an adjusted semitone rather than an adjusted whole tone, and to play low E and B natural above that E, I depress 4 & 5 (or perhaps 1-3-5, if I am being particularly picky about tuning for the B natural). Some subsequent owner could easily lengthen the fifth slide were they to be determined to not learn this fingering system, so it's not as if the instrument is something that wouldn't be desirable for anyone to own, once I've croaked.

None of the valves had any plating wear, but I sort of judged them to be about "95%" as far as the amount of wear between the pistons and casings. Experience demonstrated to me that the Meinlschmidt (Martin Wilk) pistons were a bit tight in King casings and had to be worked into the casings more so than the larger Wilk pistons. Someone offered to trade me a set of those pistons for a whole bunch of dent removal on a Conn 24J, so I bartered for a set of those pistons, fit them into the casings and - by the time I was done - I had basically a better than factory fit without having to pay someone for a valve rebuilt job, so I'm pretty happy about that.

This instrument is a firecracker: I can rattle the church pews with the 2-3-4 double low D, and can prominently sing out an E-flat above the staff in tune and with a great deal of confidence - both using a normal large size mouthpiece (actually the one I've been promoting recently).
Think of a King 2341, except adding a "wow" factor... and I wasn't foolish enough to cut it to C.

[bloke]

Part of the secret to getting the valves sunken into the instrument so deeply is the fact that all of the fourth valve tubing is off to the side of the valves on the front of the instrument. I wasn't smart enough to think of this on my own: I actually got this idea from the model 98 Miraphone, and even before I bought a model 98 Miraphone - simply looking at the pictures online.
To get yet another 1/4 inch of the front-to-back thickness to disappear, I swapped out the King top caps for Olds (which feature 1/8 inch lower center risers, so I was able to cut the valve stems off 1/8 of an inch shorter)... A/and to get the other 1/8 of an inch out of the 1/4 of an inch, I installed my own lightweight really thin stainless steel finger buttons (not seen in the picture) - as I've kept a couple of sets back for myself after discontinuing them.

[arpthark]

Part of the secret to getting the valves sunken into the instrument so deeply is the fact that all of the fourth valve tubing is off to the side of the valves on the front of the instrument. I wasn't smart enough to think of this on my own: I actually got this idea from the model 98 Miraphone, and even before I bought a model 98 Miraphone - simply looking at the pictures online.

Also seen on the Conn 5xJ series CC tubas, but in such a way that made the instrument sort of asymmetrical and side-heavy:

[bloke]

Yeah that's just butt ugly, and the valves aren't sunken into the instruments cavity either, so WTF?

There's a lot of hate for the 52J, but - when I've played them - I didn't hate them. I always thought they were alright...but(t) ugly.

Actually played a York 32-in tall Bell and bows which were cut down to C and set up for a 52J valve section to bolt onto it.

It sounded nicer than the 52J but haven't been cut down from B flat, the 52J bell and bows intonation was far superior to the cut down York intonation.

Also, those huge heavy King finger buttons are absolutely ridiculous.

[catgrowlB]

^ I prefer the nice old-school King/Olds/Reynolds m.o.p. finger buttons with the knurling at the bottoms over just about any other finger buttons Not a fan of large or thin metal valve buttons, no matter the make. Mother-of-pearl buttons -- imo -- always look and feel much nicer!

My Holton monster 5v Eb has those larger m.o.p. finger buttons done at Dillon's back in the 1990s, and they are nice.
But my Franken-Holton monster 4v Eb has an old HN White (King) valveset with the old-school King m.o.p. valve buttons, which just look classy. Those valves were most likely plated/rebuilt sometime in the past as they are smooth and have great compression. But the tuba overall looks very avant-garde

[the elephant]

Cleaning up the last bits of the Broughton for the performance this Sunday (rehearsal on Saturday).

I worked the end of the 1st movement all morning, with extra emphasis on the last six notes, which on my 6-valved F present me with a seemingly unfixable fingering knot.

So far I have run the last three, last five, or last nine bars — over and over — a total of 100 times. This is only at 90 bpm.

I am not pleased.

I will do another hundred at that speed after my break, then another hundred each at 100, 110, 120, and 132 bpm until I can play the end of the movement accurately 100% of the time with complete relaxation in my hand.

This sort of issue is frustrating. My diabetes has screwed up my right ring and pinky fingers; they are slow and get fatigued easily so that I have to make a great effort to maintain speed.

Don't get me wrong. This performance ought to go very well, but it will take a lot of effort on my part in more than a few places, and that is mostly due to my finger issues and not garden variety problems one would expect to have.

This are simply irritating distractions…

[gocsick]

Street band is working up an arrangement of Hot To Go - Chappell Roan... Bassline has some fun syncopation and octave jumps. Reading through in prep for rehearsal tomorrow.

Then spent some time getting the Metallica baselines up to speed and not sounding like mud. Still not there.. Tempo is quarter = 264 and there is just a page of those dumb flag notes string players like so much. No happy donuts to be found anywhere.

[bloke]

Typical thing where the band leader on a gig wants to have his daughter come sing, so he sent me a list of tunes and funny keys that line up with her vocal range.

I don't mind the keys. Like I've said before, I've played enough scales and arpeggios that I sort of feel the tuba in the same way I feel guitar necks, in that I just sort of stick a mental capo on the tuba... but - that having been said - these song titles are probably ones whereby he would prefer that I play bass...so even more so, as long as I stay out of first position...

... For those who don't play any guitar or bass, first position is sort of like the weird low range of the tuba with the fifth valve involved whereby everything is different, but at least you don't have to spread your teeth really far apart to play in first position.

[Heavy_Metal]

Hindemith Symphony in B-flat.

James Barnes wrote nine symphonies, and I believe that they are all for wind band.

My to-do list just got longer.

On the topic of "serious" works by major composers written originally for band (and not transcribed from orchestra), Suite Francaise by Darius Milhaud is near the top of the list.

I've played that, also the Hindemith mentioned earlier.

[tubatodd]

Bordogni Bel Canto Etudes.....like every day.

[Big Francis]

Played my 2155 with the newly installed smaller lead pipe and the water keys off the 3rd and 4th valve tubing. The odd angle of the lead pipe is by my request. It’s a better ergonomic fit for me.

[MiBrassFS]

Glad for you, @Big Francis! On that leadpipe, is it a “45SLP” pipe or something else?

[Big Francis]

It’s the 45SL pipe. Going back to @Sousaswag’s August 2024 post, I forgot to ask the repair shop to take measurements too. Every good thing you’ve heard and read about doing this mod is true.

[bloke]

You'll really enjoy that mouthpipe...

waterkeys...?? I add as many as required to avoid pulling and dumping slides...but/and what others do/believe-and-believe-they-observe is none of my bidnuss.