Dillon AGR on a Rudy 5/4...and a screwbell

[DandyZ629]

Anyone have any experience with this? I'm seriously contemplating installing one on mine...and also installing a screwbell. Welcoming insight in all forms. Have it it gents!

[bort2.0]

Anyone have any experience with this? I'm seriously contemplating installing one on mine...and also installing a screwbell. Welcoming insight in all forms. Have it it gents!

Bloke once put a different (smaller) leadpipe on a Rudy 5/4 CC, and I believe the results were described as taking about 5% of the top end oomph out of the tuba, for the benefit of making a bazillion other things easier and more enjoyable. Something like that... I'm sure he will read and reply.

I know of another Rudy 5/4 that had the leadpipe changed to a Miraphone leadpipe. Not sure the story there, but I can imagine it was helpful as well. My Alex 163 had a Miraphone 190 BBb leadpipe installed on it, which greatly improved the intonation and pitch tendencies of the horn. Was also said to be smaller than the stock leadpipe.

So if you're looking for bigger improvement, you might need to be a little bolder...? IMO, the AGR works best to allow for both Euro and Standard mouthpieces to be used. Beyond that, I don't think I'm good enough to realize a difference in the gap microadjustments. :)

[bloke]

Some might remember something pretty daring that I did with that same model, which actually offered more strikingly different options than what you are thinking of would offer.
That having been said I don’t have enough of an Attila the Hun type of mentality to guillotine the original tubing-formed mouthpiece receiver from a high-end rotary tuba.
There were some pictures on the old site (which is become a political site), I had that site’s owner delete them, but I’d bet that @cjk - the current owner - might be willing/able to supply some pictures.

[DandyZ629]

See below

[DandyZ629]

Some might remember something pretty daring that I did with that same model, which actually offered more strikingly different options than what you are thinking of would offer.

I'm all about versatility. Especially when this thing sounds like it does!
Some conversations with two fairly prominent users of said types of instrument, have alluded to installing a different "smaller" leadpipe. There isn't really a receiver on this particular instrument to speak of. Other than a decorative end piece. It's similar to an older Alexander, in that it's a pipe. A Euro shank drops in pretty damn far. An American shank literally rattles, and will fall out.

[bloke]

Yeah… Mine featured a goofball Euro receiver that didn’t fit mouthpieces, so I took my Jarno reamer and reamed it out until a euro mouthpiece fit in there without rattling. It’s safe enough to ream out one of those flared tube receivers, as long as somebody doesn’t do it forever. It’s unlikely that someone would ream all the way through the expanded/flared tube.

Mouthpipe #2 - as I recall - features a standard shank receiver.

I guess there’s nothing wrong with those AGR things, but it’s just something that sends up a red flag with me, just as with a tuba that is lacquered - yet all the lacquer is missing from the bell (only).

[DandyZ629]

What about a belt around the bell?

[DandyZ629]

What about a belt around the bell?

I've messed with that, but I mostly want a screwbell to have a bell-front option.

[DandyZ629]

I guess there’s nothing wrong with those AGR things, but it’s just something that sends up a red flag with me, just as with a tuba that is lacquered - yet all the lacquer is missing from the bell (only).

Hilariously...my bell is 95% lacquerless.
I've been using electrical tape around the mouthpiece shank...

[bloke]

If the receiver is at least a millimeter larger than standard shank - all the way up and down (or close to a millimeter), someone with a little bit more craftsmanship than “dent removal and soldering” might be able to fashion you a sheet metal receiver - to insert and solder inside the existing one - to accept a standard shank mouthpiece…??

[DandyZ629]

If the receiver is at least a millimeter larger than standard shank - all the way up and down (or close to a millimeter), someone with a little bit more craftsmanship than “dent removal and soldering” might be able to fashion you a sheet metal receiver - to insert and solder inside the existing one - to accept a standard shank mouthpiece…??

Sounds like a perfect project for my man, Gary Dafler!

[bloke]

If you can find a tube with about a half inch bore that is thinwall - and anneal it, it shouldn’t be very difficult to make that little cone-shaped insert. All that would be needed to shape it would be a not particularly desirable “spare” tuba mouthpiece…
‘ got a Jupiter 24AW with a shank in good condition?

… but the receiver into what you insert that little appliance probably needs to be around .575 inch at the choke point (larger than 9/16”), which is pretty darn large.

[cjk]

Some might remember something pretty daring that I did with that same model, which actually offered more strikingly different options than what you are thinking of would offer.
That having been said I don’t have enough of an Attila the Hun type of mentality to guillotine the original tubing-formed mouthpiece receiver from a high-end rotary tuba.
There were some pictures on the old site (which is become a political site), I had that site’s owner delete them, but I’d bet that @cjk - the current owner - might be willing/able to supply some pictures.

I can't find the pictures I took previously. I will take some more and post them this weekend. The horn has a remove-able first 1/3 of the leadpipe with both the original and a smaller option. The smaller one works well and improves the overall playability of the instrument.

[pjv]

Bloke, you also once jammed an 88H slide into an Alex 163 mouthpipe and cut it down to size. Ok, probably a bit more elegantly than my description but it inspired me enough to have another tech on “the other side of the ocean” do the same for me.

And it worked, like a charm actually. A normal mpc now goes in and the horn played better.