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

ignunt

Very curious how you responded after you got done sputtering.

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.”

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

https://fb.watch/vwWH4EDsBT/