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Anyone have any first-hand experience with putting tuning jiggers on top-action 3-valve horns? I'm debating getting one on my Martin. Overall the tuning is very good, and alternate fingerings + lipping does work for some notes, but for tuning 1-2-3 combinations it's tougher to do than on my front-action King where I have easier access to pulling slides.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Like this:
Martin put them on a batch of 4v TA Mammoths special ordered by the DC Navy band.

Mine is missing the straight rod from the lever down to the tuning slide, but that will be the easiest to fabricate.

The main slide on these has stockings like a trombone playing slide so there is less resistance.

York-aholic wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 11:48 am 4v TA Mammoths special ordered by the DC Navy band.

York-aholic wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 11:48 am Like this:

AE6E8994-8455-4439-B17F-1A96549FA87A.jpeg

Martin put them on a batch of 4v TA Mammoths special ordered by the DC Navy band.

Mine is missing the straight rod from the lever down to the tuning slide, but that will be the easiest to fabricate.

The main slide on these has stockings like a trombone playing slide so there is less resistance.

That's the kind of thing I was considering. Does anyone have a close-up pic of one of these? Better yet, anyone have one that's a take-off sitting in a parts drawer someplace?

hrender wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 1:49 pm

York-aholic wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 11:48 am Like this:

AE6E8994-8455-4439-B17F-1A96549FA87A.jpeg

Martin put them on a batch of 4v TA Mammoths special ordered by the DC Navy band.

Mine is missing the straight rod from the lever down to the tuning slide, but that will be the easiest to fabricate.

The main slide on these has stockings like a trombone playing slide so there is less resistance.

That's the kind of thing I was considering. Does anyone have a close-up pic of one of these? Better yet, anyone have one that's a take-off sitting in a parts drawer someplace?

They were (to my knowledge) only fitted to 10 Mammoths that the DC Navy Band specially ordered back in the late 1950s. I suppose it wouldn’t be impossible to find one sitting in a drawer, since my horn was missing the whole apparatus and I just recently bought my lever off of someone that did indeed have it sitting spare in a drawer.


Unfortunately, that lowers your odds a bit...


I’ve already PM’d you this but for anyone interested, here is the prototype Martin made for these USN Mammoths:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170706171 ... /nmm13807/

One of those Navy band Martins is here in town and it ...and the master tuner.... are fantastic. Another possible solution is a tuner on the first valve. Dick Akright at Best Music in Oakland put one on a top banger York I was using on the circus at the time and the simplicity is very cool. You need a piece of lyre stock, two lyre holders, and a thumb ring. One guide goes on the crook, the lyre stock goes into it, the second guide is installed on the brace above the crook, and is a guide and keeps the slide from falling out while in playing position then the thumbring is soldered to the end of the stock. I later had it taken off the York and put on my Martin Mammoth top banger and it worked great and was comfortable to hold and operate. If you're interested, I'd be happy to draw it and mail it to you. Martins rock! Ed

You could solder on a Schrader valve about halfway down the expanding bugle of the tuba, and also solder on two brackets to support a small helium tank. While you are playing, a small trickle of helium - at a controlled rate - enters into the instrument which subtly raises the pitch - and your main tuning slide is adjusted accordingly.
When you encounter a pitch which calls for the valve combination 1-2-3, you cut off the helium - which will flatten the pitch lower than it would’ve been with the helium.

bloke wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 7:08 pm You could solder on a Schrader valve about halfway down the expanding bugle of the tuba, and also solder on two brackets to support a small helium tank. While you are playing, a small trickle of helium - at a controlled rate - enters into the instrument which subtly raises the pitch - and your main tuning slide is adjusted accordingly.
When you encounter a pitch which calls for the valve combination 1-2-3, you cut off the helium - which will flatten the pitch lower than it would’ve been with the helium.

Wow! That'd be so easy. And, you could use sulfur hexafluoride https://youtu.be/HFb4EfaViCE (sounds terrible, but is used as a gas tracer to measure mixing in room air) to lower the pitch. Problem is, you'd now be responsible for releasing a THIRD greenhouse gas in addition to CO2 and water vapor.

Bill

If we were TRULY concerned about greenhouse gas, this website would not exist.