Interesting request on a Miraphone 186 for a school

[arpthark]

Band director: "Can you please remove the decorative silver wreath around the edge of the bell?"

[bloke]

ignunt

[Mary Ann]

Very curious how you responded after you got done sputtering.

[arpthark]

"It would probably be better to keep it on," in a diplomatic way.

[the elephant]

Then he can rent it out as a deli meat slicer.

[arpthark]

This school got an absurdly high quote from a big music instrument rental/half-ass repair shop to do a bunch of stuff to this tuba, which I offered to do for a sixth of the price.

Not saying that I'll be at least MUCH better than the other place, but I am also able to sell this school a bunch of working King 606 trombones and the like for a few hundred bucks instead of having kids rent or the program buy overpriced junk.

[bloke]

Solder a hoop of quarter inch brass rod around the edge in place of the kranz, just like when repair geniuses reduce bell diameters from 22 inches to 20 inches.

[arpthark]

When I first moved to this area over seven years ago, I took my tuba to the shop that produced this quote. At the time I had a rotary valve Meinl-Weston 46.

They returned it to me in horrible condition with the rotors all effed up because they, quote, "didn't work on rotary valve tubas a lot." Screws were goofed, bumpers too big, witness mark out of alignment on the back plate so I am not sure how they even attempted to align the rotors. Just a mess, and to boot, they said they dropped it while working on it which caused the sixth valve to occasionally bind. This was before I was even studying repair or anything and I knew that it was a bad job!

This same shop is providing the quote on this (rotary valve) Miraphone 186, so I'd like to think I'm saving it from a similar fate. Run away!

[MiBrassFS]

This might be what Joe is referring to with the 1/4” brass thing. Sometimes it’s the right thing to do to salvage a bell…

https://www.robbstewart.com/bell-rim-replacement

[bloke]

That might be "right", but - if someone is going to charge more than $30 or $40 - I would not (personally) have it done, because I would never purchase any instrument to which that has been done (ie. to me it produces negative value).

better options:
- new bell
(or, if its just a kiddie trombone/trumpet...)
- new (well-made, and yes, they exist) $350 Chinese instrument (if the bell is REALLY that bad)

If a Conn 36J or old 6/4 York (me: ignorant of model #'s) has a reasonably decent-condition 22-inch bell, (again: to me) it's a damn shame to trim off an inch of radius and install a fake rim made of rod.

[MiBrassFS]

I don’t presume to set other people’s rates. I also wouldn’t trust very many people at all to do such a modification, to be sure. This kind of thing has to be assessed on a case by case basis. If a new bell is available and worthwhile, dandy. I have feeling that the band director in question has dealt with people who have a lack of knowledge on how to deal with a kranz and just “wants it over with.”

[bloke]

I was answering a fb message, browsed a bit, and came across a reel of a tech at work:

https://fb.watch/vwWH4EDsBT/