questions on building frankenhorns.

Projects, repair topics, and Frankentubas
Post Reply
User avatar
jose the tuba player
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:30 am
Location: Downey CA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

questions on building frankenhorns.

Post by jose the tuba player »

i decided to build a bass trombonium, however after messing with it for a few hours yesterday i think i have failed. i used ybb105 branches to build the bugle however it is a constant taper unlike a trombone. maybe its a saxhorn? :huh:

i need advice on how to proceed with some of construction. i have the bell pressed into a section of cut branch, the overlap is an inch and a half. would this affect the overall intonation? is this a reasonable construction technique ?

also where do you place braces?

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing


User avatar
bloke
Mid South Music
Posts: 19298
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:55 am
Location: western Tennessee - near Memphis
Has thanked: 3845 times
Been thanked: 4090 times

Re: questions on building frankenhorns.

Post by bloke »

I need to get back to it, but mine is more in the form of a complete bass trombone bell section, a bass trombone playing that isn't even the same make yet I'm did things to make it bolt to the bell section, and an alternative to the playing slide which is a four piston and two rotor rig which is not completed at this time. Mine will be oriented like a typical cimbasso in F ((though B-flat). Yours looks like it ought to play. Sticking stuff together, we can get hints at how it's going to turn out, but we never really know until these things are done. I just don't know that any of us know any more than you know. If you look back through the threads in this forum, you'll see where I had been working on my project. I'd like to think that I'll have it finished this year.

Some people spend tons of money on their things, but I try to not. I might end up with a very few hundreds of dollars in mine, but I'm a bottom feeder and I'm resourceful. Additionally, I have lots of junk.
User avatar
jose the tuba player
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:30 am
Location: Downey CA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: questions on building frankenhorns.

Post by jose the tuba player »

bloke wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 11:57 am I need to get back to it, but mine is more in the form of a complete bass trombone bell section, a bass trombone playing that isn't even the same make yet I'm did things to make it bolt to the bell section, and an alternative to the playing slide which is a four piston and two rotor rig which is not completed at this time. Mine will be oriented like a typical cimbasso in F ((though B-flat). Yours looks like it ought to play. Sticking stuff together, we can get hints at how it's going to turn out, but we never really know until these things are done. I just don't know that any of us know any more than you know. If you look back through the threads in this forum, you'll see where I had been working on my project. I'd like to think that I'll have it finished this year.

Some people spend tons of money on their things, but I try to not. I might end up with a very few hundreds of dollars in mine, but I'm a bottom feeder and I'm resourceful. Additionally, I have lots of junk.
my plan was originally to use an old's bass trombone and a American made front action baritone so i could have the larger bell and 4 valves, however due to missing out on a few deals on eBay and the exaggerated prices (300-400) locally for old worn out baritones i settled with what was affordable. The mellophone was $86, the Jupiter was only $300 for a 4valve horn, i paid 35 dollars for two ybb105s carcasses. i used the crappier looking one to make cuts and shorten branches but after finding red rot i decided to use the nicer one (turns out i didn't need to shorten anything :wall:. i haven't cut any of the Jupiter parts so far so if it doesn't work out ill be putting it all back together.
User avatar
bloke
Mid South Music
Posts: 19298
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:55 am
Location: western Tennessee - near Memphis
Has thanked: 3845 times
Been thanked: 4090 times

Re: questions on building frankenhorns.

Post by bloke »

Here's an analogy which might be hard to follow, but I'm going to try to make it a worthy analogy:

Whether it's a mouthpiece or an instrument, parents of school children have come to me shopping for second instruments for their children and asking which make and model will be the best "forever instrument" for their child.

Make it clear to them that there's no such thing, and the reason there are so many different choices at the top price range is because there are so many different tastes and so many different beliefs. I then tell them that the best thing they can do at this point is to be resolute that the instrument that they are shopping for now - and end up buying is the last instrument that they will pay for for their child, and to raise their child to be able to be self-sufficient and pay for their own stuff from at least three or four years from now onward.

Okay this kind of sucks as an analogy, but the only way to learn about sticking stuff together - and increasing the chances that the stuff stuck together will end up being a fine instrument - is from experience and from having done it before. The more messing around with projects such as this, the more knowledge and instincts we gather, and the more that we sort of begin to "know" that something is likely to work or that it's not likely to work.

The child will grow into an adult and will encounter all of these choices in instruments and will eventually know better which ones might be best suited for them and which ones might not.

See? The analogy sucks because it's so tangential, but that's all I've got. :smilie6:

(These days, most everything that I stick together ends up playing pretty well - luckily, and I'm not particularly interested at all in the "journey", but only arriving at the destination. In other words, I find building instruments for myself to be tedious, and really am only interested in the instrument that results from the work.)
Post Reply