Mack Brass replacement Yamaha bell question

[arpthark]

I have emailed Tom a few times about this, but haven't received a response. Maybe someone here knows:

Does anyone know if the Mack 16" replacement Yamaha bells come in lacquer/raw brass, or are they just available in silverplate?

Thanks!

Blake

[bone-a-phone]

I don't want to speak for him, but he's been reluctant to source spare parts for anything but Macks.

[arpthark]

I don't want to speak for him, but he's been reluctant to source spare parts for anything but Macks.

Thanks for the info. That makes sense.

[The Big Ben]

I don't want to speak for him, but he's been reluctant to source spare parts for anything but Macks.

Unless he personally tells you otherwise, the link below to the Mack website says that he does and Yamaha users like the change:

https://mackbrass.com/replacement-tuba-bells

I would suggest calling him on the telephone. I don't know about their e-mail habits but people tend to answer telephones when they ring. YMMV

[LargeTuba]

A Eb York bell will fit on it.

[MikeMason]

Silver only. At least when I got mine

[LibraryMark]

I don't want to speak for him, but he's been reluctant to source spare parts for anything but Macks.

It's been my experience that he's reluctant to source spare parts for Macks, too.

[bloke]

Anderson will strip silver, and the result is a matte type of finish that's pretty easy to buff out to a gloss brass surface for lacquering.

If York (Monster?) bells fit into 621 bottom bows, do Olds 99/Reynolds 10 bells - as well as Bach 869 bells - also fit?

[Mary Ann]

Stealing the thread. I don't get this "put any old bell that fits on a tuba" thing.
With horns, the bell's tapers are EXTREMELY important to how the notes slot. But it seems with tubas any old bell will work. I don't get it. The radical difference I got from changing my original gold brass Schmid bell to a Lawson ambronze bell taught me that "a bell is not just a bell, and it's not just the metal that matters."

[bloke]

French horn bells are smaller bore (in relation to the rest of an instrument) and also a larger percentage of an instrument.

Tuba bells represent a smaller percentage of the lengths of tubas, and (regardless as to whether "small" vs. "small with a little bit larger bell throat" ~OR~ "huge" vs. "huge with a little bit smaller bell throat") they mostly act as amplifiers, and swapping them out doesn't really seem to have all that much of an effect on intonation characteristics (or even - all that much - on response). Mostly, they seem to have just about the same type of effect as "swapping out compatible-but-different speakers in bass amplifiers".

As MiraFone tubas - in the distant past - were exclusively distributed in the US out of California...and F. E. Olds and Son was manufactured in California, California tuba professionals naturally decided to experiment with sticking Olds O-99 bells into model 184 bottom bows (as the natural resonance of a model 184 - particular from that era) was/is pretty "brash".

When repairing 184 tubas, I've had Olds/Reynolds/certain-years-Conn (all the same from Fullerton, CA) bells sitting around here, and (sure) I've stuck those bells in 184 tubas and given them a blow. They play "just fine" - sound less "brash", and the intonation (far from perfect, as known) is the same.
I've never SOLD a 184 set up like that, because (why?) and (anyway) frankentubas don't bring as much dough as nice-condition factory-original models.

I have no doubt that the slightly larger Chinese bells work just fine on 621's and 621 knock-offs, that some people might like the sonority better, and that they might even sound more like the (rarely encountered) 821 model...but (as a used-tuba-buyer-and-flipper) I wouldn't buy one of those (for re-sale) unless the oem bell was also included. I also don't buy used tubas which feature "un-lacquered" bells (yet factory-lacquered everything else), as - the vast majority of the time - that is an indication of some past really bad bell damage - and who knows (??) if someone took sandpaper (or even a friggin' FILE) to that bell prior to then buffing the $h!t out of it.