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When did tuba manufacturing transition from sheet metal to extruded tubing?

Who was the first to use extruded tubing?

Who was the last to use sheet metal?

Hup

I guess it was a dumb question.

Hup

hup_d_dup wrote: ↑Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:03 am I guess it was a dumb question.

Hup

Certainly not a dumb question.

I seem to remember some Conn literature saying that they were the first to move to hydroforming brass instrument parts.

FWIW, the only horns I've ever seen with seamed tubing were some very old Conns - like 19th century into the very early 20th.

I'm sure there were others, and some that continued on later than that, but my impression is that extruded tubing was considered to be a big improvement in manufacturing.

*

Bach Stradivarius trumpet bells are sheet metal, but their gimmick is ONE PIECE (with no concentric seam at the throat of the bell), so - the sheet metal that is used starts out being TOO thick, is S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D out for more surface area (by waffling it) at the bell flair end, and - once a bell is created - it is belt-sanded down the bell stem so that the rest of the bell is then thinner than it was originally (just as the waffling thinned out the bell flair).

It seems to me, then, that high-end extruded-tubing bows of tubas could be belt-sanded - certainly on the interior-curve surfaces, as well all around the small ends of them.

When I first purchased my very early 5450, its original owner (a graduate student) had been careless, and there were a few minor dents.
Those in the large end of the upper bow were easy to remove, but one towards the smaller end of the upper bow required quite a bit of determination - on my part - to remove.

bloke "Of course, not being sheet metal - and not being 6/4, it's only a 'student' instrument, so who cares, correct?"