tuba stands and standing/sitting

[hrender]

I use a stand for the Martin simply because of the size of the thing and trying to get the mouthpiece at the right level. I used to play with it on my lap and the bits arranged a certain way, but that was tiring over a two hour rehearsal since I was carrying a lot of the weight with my right hand. The Cerveny kaiser is much lighter but the height of the thing (just under 48") puts the keel below the seat of the chair so I have to put my lower legs in a V to hold it. The stand simplifies things.

[Mark]

I have used the BBC stand for years and have become adept at standing. I will however not endanger myself or my instrument.

I agree with you on the talkative conductors. There is a worse kind though: on holiday pops concerts, with multiple works, the conductor has the orchestra stand after EVERY work.

[bloke]

I always think it's silly to mic the tuba, particularly as a front action tuba (placed in the traditional spot in a symphony orchestra) is bell is pointed right out into the open gallery (or whatever it's called...??)

That having been said, maybe it needs a boost every once in awhile...?? I really don't know how much they're cranking everything else, and it's usually hard to tell.

This is neither macho comment about either me nor about the Miraphone model 98, but - at one of the miked venues - I played just a few loud half notes (so to speak) after the dinner break was called and after all the mics were turned off. To me, my fortissimos in the hall acoustically sounded loud as hell, and I couldn't imagine them needing to be amplified any more than they are amplified acoustically by the bell of the instrument. (I tend to suspect that the sound guys stick a mic on me, and turn it down to zero, unless they have ridiculously bad taste.)

If anyone listened to any of the youtubed Tupelo, Mississippi stuff, that was all unmiked and surely any louder than that - in the loud places - would have been too much, yes?

BACK TO TUBA STANDS:
For 45 years at least, I've sat on the narrow/ not-comfortable front edges of molded (butt-shaped) chairs, because I just can't sit in those stupid saggy-shaped chairs and play the tuba. When I show up for a gig and see flat bottomed chairs, I consider that to be a luxurious gig.) I don't see anyone else sitting like I do, and I do it for hours. I think I can get by without a friggin' tuba stand, and have also done the same for 45 years. So far, I'm not limping around like an old man, though I'm sure I will fairly soon.

[the elephant]

I sit on the front 6" of chairs, too. I can't stand to have my back touching the chair, and I expand in all directions when I inhale.

[YorkNumber3.0]

.

[bloke]

My K&M legs are just about horizontal and only stick up about an inch and a half from the ground. What is the other german-made stand that BB copied other than K&M and how can it be lower to the ground than an inch and a half horizontal?

...but yes, it's still something that requires negotiating and not tripping over it (while standing, turning, and holding onto a $2X,XXX piece of extremely fragile equipment)

[Mark]

My K&M legs are just about horizontal and only stick up about an inch and a half from the ground. What is the other german-made stand that BB copied other than K&M and how can it be lower to the ground than an inch and a half horizontal?

The BBC stand legs are very low to the ground. More importantly, they are not nearly as long as the K&M and don't get in the way as much. I hated the legs on the K&M I used to have.

[bloke]

I wouldn't want them any shorter.
Again, when some $1XX thing is supporting a $2X,XXX thing, I don't want the $1XX thing tipping over (which is ONE of TWO reasons why I lower the legs as far as they'll go)...

...but COMPLETELY moot, as it's going back in the closet, and no - Dave F. is a pleasant sort, gets my jokes, and we get along famously - I'm not buying any more (nor using) any more of these contraptions. Buying/trying them labels me as the same sort of "I've got to get one of those, because tuba players online talk about and buy those" accessories addicts (clap-on water bottle holders, etc., etc., etc...) about which I sometimes make offhand remarks.

Hey...I've ALREADY stuck too much crap in the 6-inch X 3-inch X 2-inch "MIRAPHONE/MIRAFONE" cordura zipper pouch that I keep with FatBastard:

- slot screw driver
- Torx driver for linkage
- crappy Mira-wood mallet
- razor
- pencil
- valve oil
- mouthpiece w/cover

- just ONE MORE piece of crap in that pouch, and I'd officially be a "tuba nerd".
- a playing stand ordains one as a "LORD of tuba nerds".

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE playing these tubas (and tuba-ish things)...It's way easier than working at a car wash, I'm not expected to work 12 hours straight with no breaks, and (at least, back when I was washing cars) pays more than $1.65/hr... It's also GREAT fun to sit with three really superb trombonists and trade insults...ex: (to a substitute 2nd trombonist during a Scheherazade rehearsal "so...You're going with that, then...??", etc...

...but it's ALREADY hard ENOUGH to remember to tear down my cimbasso stand (when I'm doing one of those types of shows) and schlep it back out to the car - as well as to go back up to the dressing room and grab my street clothes back off the rack.

The tuba stand isn't helpful for playing (just as I remembered it isn't) - not even for FatBastards, and it's a treacherous obstacle.

It was dumb of me to start this thread. I should have just - unceremoniously - stuck it in the closet (too large for the mouthpiece/sock drawer).

[Tubeast]

Some time ago, I was guilty of similar equipment-nerdery:
- bought a nice K&M tuba stand I had seen Walter Hilgers use on standing gigs with German Brass.
- bought a nice and comfortable bar stool, mushroom-shaped, with pneumatic height-adjustment/suspension.
- bought a tuner AND a metronome AND a device that could do both, ´cause THAT one had a pickup-clip to put on the bell.

The tuba stand has been retired and is resting/rusting somewhere in the more remote regions of the community band´s storage room.
The tuners and metronomes have been put to rest as well: Tons of awesome apps available for smartphones...
The bar stool has been dedicated to our band´s timpany players.
The´ve grown quite fond of it and are hauling it everywhere they go.
I might add an engraved brass dedication plaque some time...

Bloke, rather than putting the stand back into some closet, find a new, stationary application for it where you don´t have to look at it.

[2nd tenor]

Not strictly on topic but certainly linked to it.

BBb’s are big and they are heavy and whilst physically small people can play them the difficulty shouldn’t be dismissed. It’s not particularly uncommon in UK Brass Bands for a Bass Player to sit on top of a wide piece of wood that has a narrower centre portion extending beyond the chair. The tuba rests on that narrower centre portion and the wood is kept in place by the weight of the player. It’s not a perfect arrangement but it’s simple, cheap, light and effective enough for some folk. Typically there’s a hole in the extended piece and the ball on the bow’s base slots into it … but that’s not to say either feature is essential or couldn’t be worked around.

[Three Valves]

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE playing these tubas (and tuba-ish things)...It's way easier than working at a car wash, I'm not expected to work 12 hours straight with no breaks, and (at least, back when I was washing cars) pays more than $1.65/hr...

Is that young bloke with the Mao T-shirt on?

[bloke]

Those 24 hrs. weekends (12 + 12) were when I learned how to drive a manual transmission (3 on the tree / 4 on the floor / trucks with "granny"-low / whatever... ' didn't encounter any 5 speeds, at that early date.

They would come off the track, there would be a car right behind that car, and - if no one else was around to jump in the car and drive it off out of harm's way - somebody had to jump in behind the wheel and get it out of the way some friggin' way.

I learned about push button automatic transmissions the same way.

bloke "trial and error - under fire"

[bloke]

Ie.

"OK...Somebody got this thing here. There has to be a way to get it away from here."

[Mary Ann]

Well I have to use a stand for the Eb because the bow has to be below chair level (and I had to get a kiddie stand to have one that would go low enough,) and I'm not secure enough physically to hold it with my thighs. I sit on the edge of the chair too.

The 184 CC, because the local guy I was going to have move the leadpipe angle has hurt his back and is not working on heavy instruments at this point in time (he is a tuba player) -- its bow has to be pulled as far into my crotch as possible so I can tilt the bell outward to make it playable. (Fortunately I am not fat and that is actually possible to do.) If I put it on a stand it would break my neck to try to play it. The last 184 was the same way, and I still had neck problems even though I carried my OWN CHAIR with me to gigs. This time, I'm not going to carry my own chair because at my age and physical level now, I have enough trouble just carrying the tuba. I'm totally waffling on which tuba to take to my Christmas quintet gig because I do not know what chair will be supplied. I'd rather take the CC, but it could be a nightmare with the wrong chair. One of those butt-bucket chairs would actually be the best because I could sit at the back of it and not worry about the bow slipping off the front.

[prairieboy1]

Not strictly on topic but certainly linked to it.

BBb’s are big and they are heavy and whilst physically small people can play them the difficulty shouldn’t be dismissed. It’s not particularly uncommon in UK Brass Bands for a Bass Player to sit on top of a wide piece of wood that has a narrower centre portion extending beyond the chair. The tuba rests on that narrower centre portion and the wood is kept in place by the weight of the player. It’s not a perfect arrangement but it’s simple, cheap, light and effective enough for some folk. Typically there’s a hole in the extended piece and the ball on the bow’s base slots into it … but that’s not to say either feature is essential or couldn’t be worked around.

I used one of the above for years with the Boosey&Hawkes tubas that our Community Band has. It worked really well.

[bloke]

Last summer - with a local community band (during a short paid-gig-demic) I took an old recording bell top-action RECORDING bell BB-flat Besson to a couple of their outdoor/way-to-hot-to-play-anything-other-than-electronic-keyboard gigs.

Besides the tuning slide only barely pulling out far enough (probably 90 degrees in the shade at those venues), the tuba was a bit uncomfortable to hold and play...
BUT I've held and played it with one of my detachable UPRIGHT bells, and it was MUCH easier to hold/play, due to NOT having all of the bell weight hanging off to the side.

My 3+1 E-flat (setting it up on my left leg) - I can hold/play all day, and even (re: the way that Wade and I have to sit on the front of those those butt-bucket molded chairs) slouch.

[the elephant]

I replaced the center post of my BBC with some black iron pipe. I had to make it able to rise up six inches higher than the tallest setting to get the mouthpiece up to my face. I cannot imagine a tuba stand that did not go *low* enough.

Are you guys sitting on the floor?
Are you putting the tuba stand on your lap?
I don't get it…

[bloke]

I replaced the center post of my BBC with some black iron pipe. I had to make it able to rise up six inches higher than the tallest setting to get the mouthpiece up to my face. I cannot imagine a tuba stand that did not go *low* enough.

Are you guys sitting on the floor?
Are you putting the tuba stand on your lap?
I don't get it…

Hey dude,
YOU'RE the weirdo.