brass instrument finish aesthetics

[Casca Grossa]

Everyone knows the best tubas have multiple finishes to imporve sound and intonation. Let's not forget it must have a lot of saturn water keys too. Nickel silver inner and outer slides, red brass leadpipe, silver plated bell, raw brass bugle, etc. Throw in an AGR, heavyweight mouthpiece, a tone ring in the bell, drop your mouthpiece on the fifth valve slide, and freeze the sucker at absolute zero for about an hour. That's the makings of the greatest tuba ever made.

[bloke]

Those are all great tacks/tactics for fixer-peeps who can't really fix.
tone ring:
I was given one of those for a 2165. The (tremendous) weight nor mass didn't do anything, but choking down the (Holton-345-ish) SHAPE of the bell throat (to a smaller SHAPE) did something.
It would have been better (weight-wise) had it been made of some sort of plastic.
I put it in place with two-sided tape, just in case I (or a future owner) wanted to go back to trying it without that thing.

Everyone knows the best tubas have multiple finishes to imporve sound and intonation. Let's not forget it must have a lot of saturn water keys too. Nickel silver inner and outer slides, red brass leadpipe, silver plated bell, raw brass bugle, etc. Throw in an AGR, heavyweight mouthpiece, a tone ring in the bell, drop your mouthpiece on the fifth valve slide, and freeze the sucker at absolute zero for about an hour. That's the makings of the greatest tuba ever made.

[UncleBeer]

Bloke, I happen to know that Ferree's will hook you up with a rattle can of "Eastlake Orange", which is the finish which all the hipsters prefer.

[bloke]

Bloke, I happen to know that Ferree's will hook you up with a rattle can of "Eastlake Orange", which is the finish which all the hipsters prefer.

My bass trombone cimbasso thing will feature a $150 King front-action baritone 4-valve valveset, so that seems compatible but - if I spray that on my salvaged late-1980's Yamaha $50 bass trombone bell section - won't the incompatibility issues cause intonation and response problems?

[jtm]

This thread is awful wordy for "lacquer vs silver".

If you simplify things too much, they'll have to start arguing about gold brass vs. yellow brass.

[cjk]

This thread is awful wordy for "lacquer vs silver".

If you simplify things too much, they'll have to start arguing about gold brass vs. yellow brass.

Only trombone players are THAT simple!!

[groovlow]

Let's not forget everybody's favorite finish...NOT
50% blotchy!! lacquer and brass

[Beyond16]

Everyone knows the best tubas have multiple finishes to imporve sound and intonation. Let's not forget it must have a lot of saturn water keys too. Nickel silver inner and outer slides, red brass leadpipe, silver plated bell, raw brass bugle, etc. Throw in an AGR, heavyweight mouthpiece, a tone ring in the bell, drop your mouthpiece on the fifth valve slide, and freeze the sucker at absolute zero for about an hour. That's the makings of the greatest tuba ever made.

Sounds like talk on the trumpet forums. I quit hanging around there after reading the importance of water key pivot torque. Also don't forget to clock your mouthpiece (mark the best sounding position and install it with that rotation every time).
I read over there about the importance of harmonic balancers. Well worth the money evidently, for trumpets as well as V8s.

[arpthark]

The sound of a tuba player who installs MAW valves, Saturn water keys, tone ring, magic dent, strips the bell lacquer, PVAK kit, fancy finger buttons, and heavyweight bottom valve caps:

tooooot

[bloke]

The sound of a tuba player who installs MAW valves, Saturn water keys, tone ring, magic dent, strips the bell lacquer, PVAK kit, fancy finger buttons, and heavyweight bottom valve caps:

tooooot

I was able to trade some repair work for a set of (the size that fit King) MAW pistons.

The oem pistons (King valveset that I heavily altered for my Holton project B-flat tuba) were not really "worn", but they weren't "professional-tuba tolerances close", either.
The MAW 4-piston set arrived and (just as I had hoped) didn't drop into the King casings.
By the time I fit the not-worn/possibly-barely-oversized MAW pistons to the (25-year-old-but-not-60-year-old) King valve casings, I ended up with really excellent valve tolerances, and without sending the valveset off for a (now: no longer affordably-priced) complete rebuild job.
I like the fact that those pistons (particularly the large M-W/B&S-fitting ones) weigh less. I'm not sure that the weight difference (if any - in the smaller King ones) makes much difference.

light-touch valves: (however this is accomplished)
I find that I play differently when I'm not having to work hard (and not even aware of doing it) to depress pistons or rotor levers.

tone ring:
too heavy, but shrinking the bell throat shape/diameter of a 2165 (Holton 345-shaped) bell put more clarity/"teeth" in the sonority.
(yeah...I already mentioned this earlier) A better way to accomplish this would be to fabricate the same thing of lightweight plastic and (so as to be reversible) double-sided tape it in place (which is what I used to hold that heavy brass tone ring in place).

[Mary Ann]

Can plastic pistons be made to work "as well as metal?" For me it's the length of the throw more than the weight, but I'm curious.

[bloke]

Can plastic pistons be made to work "as well as metal?" For me it's the length of the throw more than the weight, but I'm curious.

They would change too much in shape with temperature changes.

[kingrob76]

were I to pick a finish out of thin air for my horns I would pick this every time:

[hrender]

Minus the dust.

[arpthark]

Minus the dust.

With a bit of work it could be used as a large-scale mock up in dental school or for ENT doctors in training. Just add some incisors and a big uvula and you're all set.

[York-aholic]

That’s some serious tooling in the background.

[bloke]

Other than the dust, I like the King.

bloke "who shows up for gigs - sometimes - with dusty tubas, wiping them off - barehanded - during bars rest"

[matt g]

were I to pick a finish out of thin air for my horns I would pick this every time:

That Rudy looks to be made of gold brass in the leadpipe and valve tubing, with nickel silver ferrules and whatnot. Than yellow brass for the bows and bell. Seems pretty smart.

[bloke]

Something about RM bells' manufacturing processes (and/or allow...but - more likely - manufacturing processes) makes them (at least: older ones) very problematic regarding removing creases. It's almost as if they were "PRE-work-hardened".

The 5/4 that I owned and later sold is a fine instrument, but the bell was pretty beaten up when I received it, and I had to use completely different types of techniques to smooth it out to my familiar-to-some-people standards.

I don't know if RM is still using the COMBO T-joint and link type of linkage as shown in that picture, but my (older) instrument originally featured that, and I removed the T-joints and replaced them with a stabilized link (attaching the action arms to the levers). I'm only wondering (??) when the pictured instrument was manufactured. My instrument was completely fabricated of yellow brass.

[kingrob76]

I believe these are two different instruments, as the first one does not appear to have a gold brass valve section. The second photo is from May 14 of this year and came from their Facebook page, for what it's worth.