POLL: #1 slide brace alteration

[bloke]

[Doc]

The most comfortable access (at least from the photos) appears to be through the horn. Over the top can be a real PIA if the top bow is high. She ain't built like a 186/188. Unless the whole thing is really short, I'd go through. Or simply lip it, grip it, and rip it.

[prairieboy1]

Go through!

[York-aholic]

Don't move the brace, but add an additional one to the moveable slide. Then fashion a linear actuator between the two braces to push/pull all controlled by an electronic tuner... Then its plug and play.




Actually, I was looking at a picture of your horn the other day and thought about this. The stock 1st valve set up would have lowered the top of that slide into roughly reachable position, but as I assume you reasoned, doesn't have nearly as much 'pull' as your set up. Moving the brace would essentially give you the best of both worlds...

[bloke]

Truth be told,
…and this isn’t a brag, but just the way it is…

I haven’t been putting my hand on the # 1 slide, because the A-flat overtone series behaves really nicely…including the second space C, and the G overtone series does as well, whereby third valve for low G in the D above that are spot on, with everything else working out without touching the #1 slide...but I would still like for that slide to be more accessible, just in case.
This tuba is REALLY easy to play...
#4 could stand to be moved a little bit from time to time - by about an inch between F and C, but otherwise it could be left in a position halfway between the two, and function just fine. “Low” E-flat (2-4-5) asks for about a 2 inch #4 pull past the default position.
Moreover, the left hand - mostly - just holds the instrument.

[windshieldbug]

Just reverse the mouthpipe… problem solved with no brace relocation!

[Doc]

"Gee, Wally... I sure hope to get back to blokeplace before this thing starts collecting dust and disappears."

"Yeah, Beav. Just wait until dad finds out you missed your chance."





I would, of course, like to get back to blokeplace soon JUST BECAUSE.

[bloke]

Bring along a Miraphone 98, and we'll chat...
I believe I know where one can be had...

"Gee, Wally... I sure hope to get back to blokeplace before this thing starts collecting dust and disappears."

"Yeah, Beav. Just wait until dad finds out you missed your chance."





I would, of course, like to get back to blokeplace soon JUST BECAUSE.

[Doc]

Bring along a Miraphone 98, and we'll chat...
I believe I know where one can be had...

"Gee, Wally... I sure hope to get back to blokeplace before this thing starts collecting dust and disappears."

"Yeah, Beav. Just wait until dad finds out you missed your chance."





I would, of course, like to get back to blokeplace soon JUST BECAUSE.

You know of one more than I do (I’m all ears).

I do know where a 497 is, but its caretaker would have us come to him. And I know your position on that model.

[Three Valves]

Don't move the brace, but add an additional one to the moveable slide. Then fashion a linear actuator between the two braces to push/pull all controlled by an electronic tuner... Then its plug and play.




Actually, I was looking at a picture of your horn the other day and thought about this. The stock 1st valve set up would have lowered the top of that slide into roughly reachable position, but as I assume you reasoned, doesn't have nearly as much 'pull' as your set up. Moving the brace would essentially give you the best of both worlds...

They have those whiz bang guitar tuners so...

[Yorkboy]

Maybe affix a ring under the crook large enough to fit a few fingers in, and push it up from underneath...?

[bloke]

It's not going to need to be retracted much lower than an inch out (and again: I'm not sure that I'll every really be moving it very much at all)...so this will do...



Of course, a brace this massive holds a bunch of heat, and (as it cools) tends to suck the slide legs inward, so I had to compensate by soldering it together with the spacing SEVERAL thousandths too wide, and with the tips of the legs CONSIDERABLY too wide, but I eventually got it right...

(...something/blah-blah X.X34" from end-to-end)

...and Covid approves:

[GC]

Is Covid completely over the bobcat fever scare?

[bloke]

He seems to have been one of a very low percentage of cats that overcomes it, and even though he did not receive the best medicines that (had they been rushed in) are now available.
That virus will always be in him (which is typical of viral infections), but he has apparently formed antibodies (based on post-illness testing) to keep it at bay. Though (online) there are reports of quite a few cats who seem to have conquered this illness, our veterinary clinic is astonished, and say that he’s the first that they know of, around here.
He seems to be a naturally sleek cat, and his thin build has worried me (in relation to his life-threatening illness), but apparently it’s just the way he’s built (well…in addition to only being a year old, and really not fully developed), because he’s quite energetic - and doesn’t seem to be ill in any way.
There is also a 17-year-old female cat here who lost her sister, as well as an 8-year-old male cat here who lost his mother and uncle...
...and the appearance of Covid - another 1-year-old (female) cat, Cuddles - seems to have cheered them up, as they were both previously grieving.
===========
For the 4th valve slide stop, I realized that I’m out of Bach Stradivarius # 3 slide stop drilled posts, but I just now realized that I have a drawer full of partially-manufactured (long defunct - hoarded decades ago) Bundy saxophone posts, so I’m sure that I can find two matching short ones - with holes already drilled through them - that can be used, and will actually be sturdier than those Bach things.

Is Covid completely over the bobcat fever scare?

Here are Cuddles and Covid politikin' to go out. They like to watch the rain, from the carport...


Here is Covid (He's absolutely designated me as HIS person) in his typical perch (yes, really) while I'm playing one of my tubas
(with his "while I'm on my computer" perch being "on my papers")...He leaps up and lands on my shoulder without using his claws, so...


bloke "If I can play 32-bar solos-over-changes on my E-flat comp while men in their 70's and 80's are telling me about how they-or-their-son plays/played the tuba (and even nodding pleasantly with their chatter), I can certainly work on tightening up excerpts from upcoming music-reading gigs with a cat on my shoulder."

[GC]

Thanks, Joe. He's quite the handsome young man. I'm glad he's doing well (and the other Sellmansberger felines).

My cats hide when I get my horn out. Music critics.