Severely dented YBB-321

[Thom]

I am asking opinions on a tuba I purchased. I is a Yamaha YBB-321 circa late ‘70 to early ‘80 serial number 005054?
My question to all you tubist is the bottom bow and riser from the bottom bow is smashed really concave. I have priced replacement parts and labor at a few local repair shops and it comes to well over $2000.00, should I repair it or play it the way it is? I cannot download pictures because I do not know how to reduce them to less than 200Kb, a little help for that would be nice, too.

[matt g]

Repairing the 321 is going to be a labor of love, really. It’s not a popular horn among players, although it can be found in so many public schools. Clones of these exist and are pretty inexpensive. That being said, yours is probably actually made in Japan as opposed to Taiwan or China like the current 321s.

Regarding photos, it’s best to host them somewhere like Imgur and post the photo links (the ones that end in .jpg or .png) here.

[LeMark]

I use an app called lit photo to shrink pics


I agree that the 321 is not a tuba you Want to put a lot of money into, especially if you hope to flip it

[bloke]

I use an app called lit photo to shrink pics

After shrinking pictures for years (and probably sacrificing more detail than I would have liked), I discovered that imgur.com (free/no registration/just go there and upload - nothing else required) automatically resizes huge pictures that I upload, they fit nicely on computer screens/phones, much more of the detail remains, and I didn't have to do nuthin'.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[LeMark]

Wow that is a bad dent
If it was just the bottom now I'd say you could get it with a dent magnet, but the way the ferrule is smashed, that horn has to come apart

Get several estimates. It shouldn't cost $2000 to fix in my experience.

What is your location?

[bloke]

I see crap like that on a fairly regular basis. The cost to repair depends more on how much crap up inside the valve section is all messed up than whether I need to pull a bottom bow off and get my wife to help me straighten it out. That's about the same amount of trouble whether it's messed up some, bad, or really bad. Maybe that would take me a little bit more time than really bad so I might charge a bit more than for really bad but not that much more.

Again, the manufacturer (or - at least - the company whose name is on it) overcharges for those crappy bottom bow caps (only in my opinion), which is why I usually try to repair those while leaving them on the instrument. Of course, I can't quite get one of those to look new again by leaving it on there, but most people who own 321s aren't really interested in new appearance.

[jtm]

Wow. Does that damage happen accidentally?

[Thom]

Wow that is a bad dent
If it was just the bottom now I'd say you could get it with a dent magnet, but the way the ferrule is smashed, that horn has to come apart

Get several estimates. It shouldn't cost $2000 to fix in my experience.

What is your location?

I am in so cal. The price is $1400 for the replacement parts from Yamaha plus $300-$600 for soldering, etc.

[LeMark]

I'll be honest, those dents look bad but nothing warrants having to buy replacement parts. Take it to a decent shop and they will take it apart and make it 95% look as good as brand new. And it will save you at least half of the quoted amount if not more

[Thom]

I'll be honest, those dents look bad but nothing warrants having to buy replacement parts. Take it to a decent shop and they will take it apart and make it 95% look as good as brand new. And it will save you at least half of the quoted amount if not more

You answered my next repair question very well, thank you. But the real question is can I use it until later so I can continue in my local community band until the off season?

[matt g]

I'll be honest, those dents look bad but nothing warrants having to buy replacement parts. Take it to a decent shop and they will take it apart and make it 95% look as good as brand new. And it will save you at least half of the quoted amount if not more

You answered my next repair question very well, thank you. But the real question is can I use it until later so I can continue in my local community band until the off season?

As long as there aren’t any leaks, you’ll be fine. The response of the horn should improve dramatically when you do get it fixed up.

Edited to add:

You might want to start figuring out who can handle that job now, so that you will know who to take it to *and* they will make a space for you in their backlog.

Chances are that the person that can do that job well is gonna be busy and you’ll want to plan ahead.

[bloke]

Wow. Does that damage happen accidentally?

guess.

[Thom]

Damaged at a middle school before I got it.

[The Big Ben]

Wow. Does that damage happen accidentally?

guess.

The HS I taught at had two of these damaged pretty much like this. They get stood on their bells and then knocked over, usually by accident. Vandalism usually shows up elsewhere on the horn. This damage is from lack of care and caution. If a band director cannot instill care into the students, there might be merit in having nothing but plastic sousaphones in middle schools. And a deposit on school owned horns including photos. (Fat chance.)

There must be more than one or two repair shops within driving distance in LA. Make appointments to have it looked at and, if one says they can't do anything with it, go to the next one. They either are unable or won't. There is a guy on YouTube who made a video of repairing one of these in a little worse than this condition. Check this out:

[bloke]

I got through this summer without dealing with any of those (typical 321 $h!t), but dealt with other horrible $h!t (other trashed tubas and trashed 4-valve euphoniums...which tend to get trashed worse than 3-valve...and (according to the percentage of lime/scale-frozen #4 pistons) a whole bunch of taxpayer money is wasted on the expense of those 4th valves (in addition to the way-mo'-money I have to charge fixing them - when they get toh-up).

Sousaphones being circular and 3-valve, I'm able to un-trash those fairly quickly. ie. Those don't bug me at all...Even at worst, I can heat about four to six solder joints, pull their bodies apart (ie. in half) fix 'em, and stick 'em back together.

BAND DIRECTORS: Ask us to repair your TUBAS in September/October (with fresh/separate requisitions/P.O.'s) - when you're not using them.

Band directors be like: "We do BOTH marching AND concert band in September/October."

(us fixers: yeah...right...)