TubaForum.net

Here I am again triggering people who sell these - as well as those who buy them...but this isn't a troll
(and - agreed? - I'll often admit openly when I'm trolling).

Displaying instruments is sort of a self-serving enterprise. Others really aren't interested in them.
Mostly (as mostly guys play tubas) our wives are those who have people over - and it's their friends - and their friends aren't interested in admiring our tubas...

...so the purpose of these tripod NON-playing stands is - pretty much - singular: so that we ourselves can admire them as we walk past them.

Quite obviously, the safest place to store a tuba is in a hard case, with a second choice being a thinly-padded bag...
...but both of those tend to discourage practicing, as it requires just enough time to remove our instruments from those things that (when the practicing bug is borderline) it's just discouraging enough to (well...) discourage.

The claim that "resting tubas on their bells causes creases" is false. I offer no wiggle room - regarding this claim - because no tubas that I've ever used or owned have ever ended up with creased bells simply from resting on their bells. This includes my ultra-thin-walled current 6/4-size tuba, whereby resting a small "Miraphone" mouthpiece/accessories bag against the bell (in the case) resulted in the cloth PIPING on the little bag putting little dent lines (yes, really) in the bell...YET - setting this instrument on its bell habitually never has resulted in a bell crease.

Tripod stands (regardless of how sturdy-built, how black their paint, or how steampunk their design) are precarious. They all involve balancing a 20 - 30 pound very delicate object up in the air via a support system that probably doesn't weigh as much as the object itself (and places the majority of the aggregate weight up in the air.

Instrument stands are not impossible to knock over and - typically - it's the owner of the instrument themselves (or their spouse, child, or pet) that knocks them over.

me...??
I tend to keep my tubas "out"...but (again) I rest them on their bells and rest the back sides of them against something. I don't bother to do this, but some might put a washcloth between the tuba and object (wall or what-have-you). Logic dictates that walls are far better resting places than chairs, and "way away from traffic paths" is far better than "in or near traffic paths".

I have a couple of non-tuba (large) instruments that I also like to keep out and ready to play. Those are pushed way back between a dresser and a almost-never-used small desk - in the corner of the room. The reason for this is because they - unlike upright bell tubas - actually REQUIRE stands, if not stored in their hard cases...and (again) they don't extend out into the room.

OK...The sit-down-on-the-floor "bell-up" style display stands for tubas:
I would be wary of those as well, and can easily conceive of just as much damage occurring via a mishap with one of those...
...so I could/should broaden the title of this post and REMOVE the words "tripod-base".

This post is from a repair-guy's perspective. It's only opinions/advice, and to either be heeded, ignored, viewed as ridiculous, or reacted to with some sort of "yeah, but my..." Quite obviously, each will do as they choose. I do tend to PERSONALLY (yeah: me/opinion) view the tripod stands as yet another "oh cool, something I can buy to go with my tuba" thing, rather than something that's actually useful, but (again) that's just me. We all justify our own decisions, and - the older I get, and the most introspective I become - the more I catch myself (ie. realizing/admitting to myself) making lame excuses for my own behavioral, purchasing, and other decisions.

facebook post that prompted this screed:

I have three old Eb horns sitting on cheap guitar stands. It has worked so far, but if they do fall over, it's no big deal - they are little more than decorations.

All about convenience for me. Has to be, as my horns are nothing much to look at.
Yamaha Randall May stadium sousaphone stand typically emerges the day after Thanksgiving and holds my sousaphone handy till Christmas caroling ends.
My wife begrudgingly tolerates the visual clutter because it's temporary and out of her way in the north living room but for when she uses the treadmill.
We have neither free-roaming pets or younglings, and should we suffer an earthquake violent enough to tip over the stand (pretty darn squat and stable), I'll be dealing with much bigger problems than sousaphone damage.

I keep mine out so I play it more often.

Also, we have a large brass jardiniere on the other side of the living room and my life demands symmetry and balance!

It has been commented on by the TE quartet that the cats don't appear to bother the tubas, which are always sitting out on their boxes. Nope, for some reason they respect my stuff. The furniture also does not get clawed -- they stick to their scratch mats and sisal stuff. Fully clawed, not trimmed. I have good cats.

I keep mine on stands because they all have recording bells so the sitting them on the bell isn't an option. Furthermore, the less barriers I have to practicing the better, so if I can easily grab one off a stand as opposed to rolling out and opening a case, I'll tend to play more.

Of course the only ones I have out on stands are the only ones I actually play regularly. The ones that live in their cases are usually the ones for sale.

I dunno, I have a couple Hercules stands in my barn with less-than-precious horns or tuba carcasses on them and I bump, nudge and whack them regularly (well, not regularly, I'm not a total klutz) and they don't budge. Yesterday I somehow managed to drop a bugle on top of one when trying to hang it up on a nail. The tripod legs stick out pretty far which makes the base very sturdy. You'd have to really bowl into them or trip over one of the legs to knock 'em over, I reckon. Of course, I don't disagree that the safest place for an instrument is in its case out of the way, and I don't keep tubas inside on a stand (not a great combo with a 2 year old).

Y'all do ya'll's thing...

not my business...

only my advice.


A washcloth down on the bell will also catch condensation running out of the mouthpipe tube (when a tuba is stored on its BELL).

This is water which would otherwise collect and sit in the main slide bow (typically: yellow brass) if on a display stand and promote red rot.

A long time ago I had one of the “Baltimore Brass” style of wooden stand where you rest the tuba on its bell but it’s held in place by the wood and it’s carpeted to protect the bell edge. It was a copy somebody made, not the real Baltimore Brass. Nevertheless, it worked like a charm and I wish I still had it. Seems like the ideal combination of features. My tuba always seemed very stable in the thing. The stand increased the “footprint” of the bell for increased stability, if that makes any sense.

DonO. wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2024 4:08 pm A long time ago I had one of the “Baltimore Brass” style of wooden stand where you rest the tuba on its bell but it’s held in place by the wood and it’s carpeted to protect the bell edge. It was a copy somebody made, not the real Baltimore Brass. Nevertheless, it worked like a charm and I wish I still had it. Seems like the ideal combination of features. My tuba always seemed very stable in the thing. The stand increased the “footprint” of the bell for increased stability, if that makes any sense.

I don't own one, but the school where our community band practices has some and I tend to borrow one since they have a vinyl tile floor, not carpeted. Also has the bonus feature of reserving horn space from encroaching Bass players, and discouraging the woodwinds in the next row up from using said space for entry/egress.

I prefer bell-up storage for convenience, and also because when stored on its bell, my tuba accumulates condensation in the upper branches. This requires a clockwise rotation of the entire horn to drain fluid from pulled slides which increases risk of bell damage if done carelessly. Condensation also accumulates in the valves, and the valve corks and felts are perpetually a soggy pulp requiring more frequent replacement. Yes, I do drain my horn after use. Comments regarding drainage are welcome.
Question: Has anyone tried using a Hercules DS551B Sousaphone Stand as a storage/display stand for a tuba?
Thank you

Warning--extreme thread drift follows:

Repair folks/other knowledgeable contributors, a question for all y'all: would something like a boot dryer fab'd onto a Baltimore Brass type BELL DOWN tuba stand help to keep the innards drier and thus reduce the buildup of schmutz and maybe even red rot? Or, would it just make the soft scum hard faster and thus more difficult to clean out?

Like I said--thread drift. If the moderators want to start a separate thread with this question, I suppose the topic would be "Tuba drying stand?" Just thought I'd ask here since folks in this thread are already thinking about tuba stands.

Bill

DonO. wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2024 4:08 pm A long time ago I had one of the “Baltimore Brass” style of wooden stand where you rest the tuba on its bell but it’s held in place by the wood and it’s carpeted to protect the bell edge. It was a copy somebody made, not the real Baltimore Brass. Nevertheless, it worked like a charm and I wish I still had it. Seems like the ideal combination of features. My tuba always seemed very stable in the thing. The stand increased the “footprint” of the bell for inycreased stability, if that makes any sense.

I need to make or buy a couple of those. The one thing bloke doesn’t mention in the resting on the bell approach is what happened to one of my horns resting on it’s bell situated in an out of the way place next to a wall. A 175 lb Mastiff ( a rescue foster) was goofing around with my own big guy and in all the carousing stepped on it - causing a big enough bend I had to roll it out.

Stuff happens in ways you can’t always predict. I’d personally rather have the horns out & handy and not stuck in a big ugly case that’s a pita to have in in the way in a room vs in one of the basement storage rooms.

I did actually have a few made for my horns. Cost about $60 in materials.

They work well and fit my horns perfectly. I will say, for this kind of stand, you really want your bell to sit perfectly flat, as they really don’t prevent a fall backward. That hasn’t happened, to be clear.

A good friend of mine owns a fine MRP-C, but something is off about that bell. It doesn’t make contact with the ground all the way around. It will stand, albeit precariously. I suggested he have that worked out before trying to use a stand like this. I wouldn’t trust it.

We were just away from here for four and a half days (as a separate thread discusses). I didn't put all my tubas away in their cases, but I leaned them against the front of a love seat - bells down, and moved everything away from those tubas that was within falling distance (music stands and chairs).

We left two cats in the house with food and access to all the rooms, so they wouldn't freak out... one of them freaked out anyway - the one who's/that's very attached to me. (By 2 in the morning, he was laying on top of me and purring. )

Mrs bloke actually likes for my tubas to be displayed in the room where our office desks are located, a large TV a couch and a loveseat are also there, and which is a room that used to be our bedroom, but we decided it was too absurdly large for a bedroom, as it has a fireplace and all that. We enclosed a very large attached porch and that's where we now sleep. Since this is a log house, stuff attached to the walls isn't going to fall. I have some of those sousaphone wall mount things that fit some of the tubas and I took apart some of those Wenger "tuba tamer" things, and hung the business portions of those on the wall as well for some of the other tubas.
Only because she was interested in this did I do this, and I would have never agreed to putting any of these instruments on floor-mounted "display" stands.

If anyone would like for me to show them how I disassembled the Tuba Tamer things and made them to where they would mount on a wall yet still adjust, I'd be glad to show someone...perhaps with one of those live video phone calls or something. Assuming there might be someone who's not particularly engineering savvy, you're not going to want to simply mount them only into sheetrock - as you would mount a painting or something.

I have a couple of the K&M floor stands. They’re pretty study/trustworthy in the right situation. I also have a couple of those BBC pallet boards I’ve had for years. The 340 is sitting in one right now, but it’s in a spot where it won’t get bumped and everyone here is careful.

I think it's a really bad idea when band directors mount those Wenger sousaphone hanger things onto cinder block walls. Mounting into cinder block isn't as reliable as many believe it to be, particularly if the little expander things are not epoxied into the cinder block, and also considering years of young scholars slamming their sousaphones onto those things and stressing the mounts. Cinder block is not very stable material.