Unless things have changed drastically with them, McMaster has usually had reasonable shipping for me - I went back and looked at prior orders and just about everything was in the $8-11 range, for a "small box" of stuff - lately it's been high pressure fittings and stuff for the compressor, or ...

I really wish that Instrument Repair would be an 'enrichment' class at a local community college, like the welding, auto repair, etc classes. Classes that you can keep taking for a small fee to retain access to the workshop+tools and a knowledgeable instructor.

Is the Elephant Waltz something different from "Baby Elephant Walk" by Henry Mancini?

Wait... you're telling me that the King fiberglass sousa that I've had for 30+ years now - the bits could have been better? Damn... I've always just figured that was how they all are. Great, now my expectations have been raised and it'll annoy me every time I play it from here on out. Thanks.

What bands are you in now?


Wife and I play with the Encore Community Music group, which is an all-ages ensemble, with strings and winds (So, not really a Band, or Orchestra?). I also play with the McDaniel College concert band, which lately seems to be about 50/50 students and community members ...

This post has been interesting... it makes me wonder how much of an outlier my experience is for an active adult player.
(...)

The long story short... is I never actually had any formal musical training...
(...)

Any other self learners on here????????


Kind of a similar path. Started playing ...

travisd wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2026 7:14 am Email sent on the Gard one... hoping it fits my YBB-641.

For anyone else curious - the Gard bag does in fact fit the YBB-641 Like A Glove as they say. Thanks for the bag, Blake!

Email sent on the Gard one... hoping it fits my YBB-641.

When I comes to school purchases I have to wonder if it's the director's selecting them, or the purchasing process leading them that way. Do they actually specify a brand, or do they have to provide specs/requirements and then the vendors respond with a proposal that meets or exceeds them? Then it ...

The 641 is about 40.5" long - the main body is about 18" wide, and the bell is around 16". It appears that the Miraphone G170102 would work for this. I know it's too big for the G170103 that I have for my Mack 210.

Finally got around to taking this one into Baltimore Brass to get into playing condition. After some back and forth on what made sense, we came up with a plan and they brought it in pretty much where I was hoping to. Linkages are all nice and quiet now, valves work great (werent' any valve problems ...

Snapped a pick of Chuck's axe in the case after the Baltimore gig earlier this year (we did the reception afterwards)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55326692870_b9e8ae6e11.jpg

(Had to edit out what is presumably Chucks phone #, scrawled in silver sharpie under something resembling his name).

Fortunately it's been archived over the years by the Wayback machine ( https://web.archive.org/web/20260429142911/https://cderksen.home.xs4all.nl/ )

Thankfully it's a pretty simple site. I'm currently grabbing a mirror of it via wget, which may or may not yield a functional copy, but it's something ...

Have you priced Helium lately??? I'm hearing like US$1k for a K bottle (250cf) of the UHP stuff....if they'll even sell it to you, due to supply constraints.

No experience with any of these, but have you looked at the Tubabelt? I've seen it in use by both Willi from Mnozil, and Carol Jantsch for standing/walking gigs. Still requires the horn to have a ring in the right position though.

The newer "HxEssential" line has the benefit of recording in 32-bit Float which means not needing to set levels prior to recording - but you will need to adjust the gain in editing afterwards. Also don't overlook that most of them (all?) support functioning as an audio interface, so you can use them ...

We have Tix for their Sunday March 1st gig at GMU (VA). Saw them at the Weinberg in Frederick MD last time they came around - front row as I recall. Always a great show!

I just checked the Coordinator store (Where we order books to re-sell, etc at the event) and the Blue Eb book is not up there. Your best bet may be to get one from a coordinator who happens to already have some. I *think* the Baltimore folks mentioned having some of those. I'll DM you their address ...

At high enough voltages, many typically non-conductive things will conduct. By the time the lightning hits your tuba case it's already convinced the air to do so.

Besides, who uses carbon fiber that isn't covered in plastic resin for consumer grade situations?

Sorry to hear that. I met Luke via his computer BBS that he ran back in the 80's and 90's, while I was in middle school, very early in my musical journey. He lived in the same town as I did, which meant it was a local call :) First time I met him in person, probably the main thing I remembered was ...