thinking a lot about my friend, this week...

[bloke]

...who died last year...

...the reason being that I've been working on his 186 B-flat (which he bought new, the year he auditioned into Pershing's Own.

He left the Army (having met his obligation - avoiding Vietnam) after only one enlistment period (technically 1-1/2, but it's complicated) stint, he asked me to sell this, so he would have enough for a house down-payment. I sorta believe (rather than "becoming a career tuba player") his life goals were to
- avoid getting shot in Vietnam (thus practicing on our high school's 36K fiberglass sousaphone several hours every-every-EVERY night)
- marrying his girlfriend (and having an income to support her (thus auditioning into Pershing's Own - basically, when in the 12th grade, auditioning on the sousaphone)
- moving to Nashville and living there - rather than Memphis
LOL...and that's what he did. He went until c. age 60 or so until finally buying himself a euphonium...followed up with buying himself another (Jinbao) tuba.

Back when he left the Army (late 1970's) I sold his perfect/no dents/no scratches 186 to a private school, whereby it was trashed.

The current band director (having no idea that I had actually sold this instrument to the school 45 years ago) traded it to me (not playable) for some repair work.

The tuba's valveset (pictured below) is headed off to Miraphone for rotor stem rebuilding. Rather than me removing any vertical bearing play (well...since it will be at freakin' MIRAPHONE) I might as well have them take care of any of those issues as well.

For quite a while, I've had a new/old/never-installed 16-1/2" MIRAFONE 186 bell on my bedroom closet shelf, and I believe this tuba deserves that bell.

A good bit of the instrument is shiny, so I'm probably only going to shine and spray clear lacquer on burned lacquer and worn lacquer places - as well as the replacement bell.

It would be sorta cool to keep this tuba, but I don't need a tuba-sized "monument" to my friend - in order to be able to remember him...
I'll be offering it for sale with like-new rotors, the original S-arm (will be quiet) linkage, the new bell, and dents removed - probably for about half the price of a new one. If any interested individuals think that's too much, I'll sell it to a school (as schools typically simply ask, "Here's a P.O. How soon can it be ready?") I'd sorta prefer to sell it to someone in the private sector - so it has more of a chance of staying in nice condition.

Before I send this valveset to Miraphone, I'll be giving it an acid bath, removing a few dents, and (why not?) remove any burned lacquer.

FInally, if anyone else has a (thanks to school-aged children and with the assistance of music store "techs") messed-up-valve-stems - plus up-and-down-clicky-from-use Miraphone valveset, you can take a peek at what what I did here - which avoided pulling out the serpentine-yet-nearly-clear-of-denting #4 circuit tubing (which remains soldered to the interior bows of the tuba), as well as defining much less size/weight and considerably reducing the likelihood of damage (for a more affordable overseas postage cost).




Being sold new c. 1975 (??) or so, I suspect that this tuba originally featured the stop-gap adjustable screws in the rotor caps, but (likely...??) I swapped them out to go onto another Miraphone 186 that I fixed up and sold...

[York-aholic]

That’s a great story/post. It makes me happy to read about you taking such good care of it (the horn of a friend). Class act.

[prairieboy1]

This certainly is a class act! Well done, Bloke.

[The Big Ben]

Sorry to hear about the passing of your friend. This seems to be happening in my peer group, too. I have always thought the story of making an Army band with a plastic sousaphone a demonstration of success made with a combination of ability and a lot of hard work. There must have been a reason you were saving that new bell in your closet..

[bloke]

I may not end up sending this valve section off after all. A while back, @Schlepporello sold me a couple of old Miraphone valve sections. One of them was so old that the rotor tapers were different and the removable bearings were a different style which featured a lip like most French horn removable bearings, but the other one was roughly of the same vintage as this one that I'm repairing and - mixing and matching stuff - it looks like I might have four good rotors - two of each orientation and four bearings that fit both the rotors and the casings. I'll have to mess with them just a little bit but I think that's better than sending it off to Germany.

Even though I'm getting behind in repair work, I'm probably going to go ahead and work on these valves until I'm sure that everything's cool, so I can put away those other valve sections and get them off the floor next to my workbench.

This is one of the main reasons I try to tell people that I'm not a parts supplier. If I'd sold some of this stuff off, what would I have left to work with?