Some Updates

Recently, I acquired a number of instruments:

Three miniature sousaphones, a mellophone, a couple of helicons, a raincatcher sousaphone, and another tuba. Most of these instruments will be dismantled and turned into other instruments - like three more french horns and a few more mini-tubas.

On my move from Seattle, I came across a raincatcher Sousaphone at a TGIF restaurant. Sure, it had some holes in it and was considerably dirty/grimy, but how often do you find a raincatcher, let alone one you could buy because the restaurant was going to be remodeling the following week! Anyway, it's a Carl Fisher, probably late-1910s, maybe early 1920s. Definitely an import, but a nice example of a raincatcher Sousaphone.

I also bought a Martin Eb helicon, which may or may not be in the key of D - that's not a Low Pitch tuning, but the actual pitch of D. Evidently Martin made an extra long slide to place the key in D... for whatever reason. The helicon needs a little work, but is in quite good shape. The previous owner "suggested" that I convert it to CC and add a valve. I might, but I still need to find a Martin valve/casing and a whole bunch of Martin braces and tubing - it needs to look natural. On the other hand, I could add a rotary valve (with a thumb trigger) and make another set of slides to allow the instrument to play in CC or Eb. Harvey Hartman did this for one of his customers and I've heard of good results from others regarding such a "conversion".

Let's see... here are some quicks:

- Converted the bass trumpet to an alto in D (need to either cut to Eb or add a little more to C) with four valves.

- In the process of another alto in Eb with four in-line valves and a 7" Olds bell

- Attempting to sell the Bass Horn to fund a few more

- Bought a JW York Eb tuba in excellent condition... just needs a couple dents removed. Otherwise, it plays very well.

- Sold a couple of Getzen Eterna Bass trumpets.

The big news is I've got a customer wanting a contrabass flugelhorn in Eb. It's using a .560" marching baritone valve block and a considerable amount of conical tubing. The end result will hopefully be around the size of a standard marching baritone.

Coupled with that, I have enough parts and bells to make two contrabass trumpets in either Eb or F.

As for the Jumbo sousaphone, I sent the valve block off to NRE Brassworks to finish up the fourth valve tubing. There are some other small changes to the look, but I'll hopefully have it back in time for Purdue University's Homecoming. A friend of mine has a King Jumbo and another alumnus has one as well. Counting "Big Bertha" owned by Purdue, that's three Jumbo for their Homecoming. Once mine is up and running, I'll be bringing it down to Purdue to have one of the alumni players use it for the game, so that their will be FOUR King Jumbos in use - two three valve 1265's and two four valve 1266's! Just like the Pentwater Jumbo Summit of 2011.

Mini BBb Tuba or 1/4 BBb tuba

This is something I've wanted to do for a while...

Originally, I was going to use a large bore rotary valve set, but upon realizing that I need 15 ft of 3/4" tubing, I opted for a smaller valve set to reduce the weight.

Luckily, I found the Barcone sousaphone that was used for the Bass Horn. The valve set was a little on the small side - .545" - but I didn't have to make a main tuning slide or figure out some of the wrap.

I took the Getzen Baritone Bugle and mounted the rest of my King tubing (after bending them into large crooks) on to the valve section. The leadpipe came from the baritone jazzophone that I had scrapped a while ago for the valve section and modified the first slide into a top slide - it was very successful!

As for the tuba.... well, it's OK. It's about 24 inches tall and has a 10" bell. It plays OK in everything but the lower register - essentially anytime I have more than two valve down, it plays like a bucket, just super stuffy and narrow. It's a practice instrument: practice to see if something like this is possible, which it is, and practice as in something I can practice on if I'm traveling or in a car or bus or if I want to ride a bike somewhere and not lug around a 30+ pound tuba or sousaphone.

Old pictures without braces:

BBb Bass French Horn Finished! With Video!

About a month ago, I finished the bass horn, but never got around to updating this post.

So, without further ado - the conclusion of the BBb Bass Horn...

I decided not to bend the first valve crook, I didn't think I would have enough tubing left over to finish the fourth valve and have it still play in BBb. Instead, I split a piece of outer tubing down one side and covered the thin spot. It looks a bit odd, but doesn't leak!

Ben was kind enough to stand with the body to show an approximate size for some people that were interested in what I was doing:



I had at first thought of having a removable leadpipe, with a small crook loop, but upon bending it and trying to get it into the right shape AND still be sturdy enough ... I scrapped the idea in favor of a more traditional non-removable leadpipe.

In the next couple of days, in between normal class work - flute padding and trombone slide alignment - I began using what parts I had left from the euphonium to cobble together the rest of the fourth valve wrap and main slide. I used one of the smaller crooks for the second valve:



And fit the inner slides to the crooks (you can see the first slide patch). Before going on to solder all the fourth valve tubing together, I first went over to the main lathe and cut the inner and outer valve slides to the correct lengths - much easier than using the band saw! Each slide has about 4 inches of pull (8 inches total). Though, as I found out, the second slide can only be removed once the first slide has been. The first slide has an ever-so-slight bend that prevents the second slide from being pulled out more than an inch and a half. Of course, the way I play, I don't usually pull out second slide unless first slide is pulled out a bunch.

Sometime the next week or next couple days, I worked on the fourth valve wrap. I used some of the extra inner branches that I bent earlier (I had previously tuned the open bugle). At first, the slide was going to be pulled in the same direction as the main slide, but upon further experimentation, I realigned the tubing so that the slide would be pulled in the same direction as the other valve slides. In the following picture you can see the first attempt at the leadpipe on the left, the first attempt at the fourth wrap, and some approximation of where all the inner branches would be.



I noticed that the inner branches would interfere with the valve caps, so I had to move some of the tubing around so that I could still have access to the rotors for maintenance.

It was a frantic push to the end, as I think I only had a couple days left... Anyway, I began searching for braces and started mounting all the tubing. I bent the leadpipe, fit the slides, tuned the slides, and braced all the parts that needed bracing. I added a thumb hook, though Ben told me I needed a duck foot or some other support that rested on my finger instead of being held by my thumb. Drilled a hole for the only water key - an Amado - though I've discovered that I need at least 2 more to actually drain the water efficiently. I used most of the braces from the euphonium and a few from mini sousaphone. The others were various trumpet braces and some telescoping braces from cornet/trumpet.

I was going to use the Fred Young mouthpiece, but it had just a bit too much of a woofy sound. Fortunately, the Sellmansberger Solo #2 mouthpiece worked wonderfully. I owe this possibly to the fact that the mouthpiece is made to work with F and Eb tubas, but given the french horn length of an F tuba, I though it might work well with a rather cylindrical, almost contrabass trombone sized french horn. It really makes it sound like a french horn in certain registers.

Anyway, here are the final pictures. Since I didn't have enough time to buff all the parts, I decided to go with a scratch brush finish to simulate a satin finish. After playing it a few times over the next couple of days, I knew I couldn't keep the raw brass finish, so I took it over to Kennelly Key's up in Lynnwood and they sprayed a clear coat of lacquer over top. Yes, I know there are still patches of tinning and some heavy spots of solder, but for a PROTOTYPE, it works GREAT... though I still needs to cut the main slide an inch or so....

Hand tuning works just like on a normal french horn, though hand stopping is a little more difficult as the throat is larger than my hand.





As a size comparison, here it is next to the King 2350 and a King 1265 Jumbo sousaphone:



And some video!

Bass Horn Part 8 - AAARRGGGHHH!!!

AAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I asked Dan about how to fit the two bell parts together, he suggested cutting triangles out of the flare to decrease the throat....

MISTAKE #1

I had flared out the baritone bell stack to nearly match the bell flare taper, but still couldn't get it close enough.

Then, I cut about a quarter inch of the large end of the stack to decrease some of the extreme flaring at the edges. This was to help mate the two sections together. Asking Dan what to do next was not very helpful - he wasn't sure but gave me a suggestion to just start brazing the two section together.

MISTAKE #2

I had to cut more of the bell stack off, about another quarter inch, as it wasn't touching the inside of the bell at all. The overlaps of the brass on the flare - should have cut them off - meant that I was brazing unevenly and effective filling large gaps with brazing wire.

MISTAKE #3

Once I had brazed the first half (in thirds around the bell), I had to hammer the section together more and flatten out the overlap so I could braze some more.

MISTAKE #4

In realizing that I was just screwing up, I figured out that I should have soft soldered the parts together, that way if I had to adjust something I wouldn't have to cut it apart. The triangles I had cut from the bell didn't help, I was left with ugly gaps and three small holes where the bell stack didn't go far enough down (I still need to fill those).

The bell was together, but was EXTREMELY UGLY. I started filing and hammering, and filing, and hammering, on both the outside and inside until I got something sort of smooth. The problem with the triangle cutting was that I had uneven flaring on the bell, meaning that I have I think two flat spots that WILL NOT come out because there is too much brass in that area to move.

I'm probably going to have to apply two ring patches around the inside of the bell and on the outside to cover the massive EYESORE and make something that looks a little better.


On the plus side I tacked it on to the body and now it actually looks like a french horn....

Unfortunately....

I screwed up the leadpipe. I found the right position but kept thinking about having a removable leadpipe like a crook extension on a french horn. I decided to bend it by hand.

MISTAKE #5

Leadpipe is trashed, it might work if I need it to, but for now I'll have to find and pay for another.

During the final hour of the day I decided to begin strapping the slide crooks to smooth out the hammer marks from bending. Well, I must have not hammered enough because I strapped a hole right into the first crook trying to remove the hammer marks - must have been a ridge there.

MISTAKE #6

Tomorrow I'll be bending a new first valve crook.

Bass Horn Part 7

BENDING!

I didn't buy the right wood. I should have spent the money on actual timber, instead of the particle board. But it was cheap and I still have a 6' x 4' piece (cut into 2x2).

Anyway, bending the crooks was interesting.

The first valve crook took me about 4 hours in order to make it look right, it still isn't right and I have no desire to fill it with Cerrobend again, Dan thinks I should be able to slightly bend the tubing with a drumstick or mandrel. It's off by like three millimeters from parallel, it won't run inside the slide as smooth as needed.


The third slide was bit more involved but took less time as I had some practice bending the right curves. plus I had to make another tool and had to screw down more board to support the tube during the bending process.





I didn't think I could bend the tubing in a close enough curve (2.5 inches) without using an entire 30" tube (I have 6 left for the leadpipe/main-slide and the fourth valve), so I only bend the outer portion and used parts from my huge euphonium to complete the inner curve.


Oh, and I had little accident in filling a tube - didn't hold on to the cork...





Friday, I spent the day making ferrules and tacking the body together. I may need to flip the valves after-all...


Here are some pictures:

Bass Horn Part 6

Working on the valve block today didn't go quite as planned. I had hoped that the valve caps could be on top like they are on the French horn, but with the paddles flipped and the relatively short paddles, I couldn't fit the tubing around where needed, but most importantly get the correct height for the linkage to move freely.

I'm sure if I had more time I could machine a solid rise to sit between the two supports and the linkage bar, but trying to shim the two spots and still not achieving the right height was leading to more headaches than necessary. The work-around was to flip the section back over like you would find on a tuba... Sure you can still have access to the rotors for maintenance, but it loses some of it's Professional-Quality-Appeal. This does move the valves down and up a little, and should give me enough clearance to still depress the paddles. It should, if I wanted to and had better skills in the future, allow me to flip the valve section over again and use a new linkage set - maybe even strings!

I also filled the first branch after the valves with Cerrobend and bent the end toward the valve block. In draining the oil from the tube before filling with Cerrobend, I noticed a small crack in the seam. It's a little worrisome as this might lead to more crack, but it's in such a spot that I can cover it with a brace. Found a ferrule to fit the tube that I had torn through (old stupid mistake...) and made a ferrule for the two new inner branches. Then I cut the ends of the new inner branches and fit them together, then cut the first branch connecting to the valve section to the proper length to bring the tubing around as it should.

The current total estimate length, through the valves, leadpipe, two branches, body, throat and part of the bell (maybe) is around 178.5", this leaves me with about 37.5" to add between the leadpipe and the to inner branches. This is where it gets tricky....

I need to add the main tuning slide, but leave enough room to either cut tubing out to adjust the pitch up, or add a longer tuning slide to adjust the pitch down. This of course means I need to figure out the bell situation...

At the moment, the bell is in two parts. I have a throat from a euphonium/baritone bell, it fits the body collar perfectly and is just about the right length to fit with the design. The bell is the flare from the mini sousaphone - 19", again a near perfect fit for the design. The only problem is that the tapers of the two are different, meaning that I either have to make a new throat and mate it to the bell, or add a right of brass around the section where the two ends meet. The former would involve serious brazing and cutting tabs to join the main throat and then more tabs to join the ends with the bell - possibly more trimming of the bell inner throat. The latter would probably involve less work, but would look much worse (in my head). Of course if I could find a small 5.25" sousaphone collar, I could have a removable bell.

This is the next goal, although I could always start on bending the first and third crooks.

Of the parts I still need:
Braces (I should have the right ones)
Possible second valve crook from a King tuba/sousaphone
Possible trigger mechanism for the main slide and a thumb lever
Some other things I might think up...

Finish-wise, I buffed the leadpipe, though it has been drained of pitch as I still might need to bend it more or bend it back. When I'm done with it, I'd like to get it bead-blasted with bright trim and then a coat of lacquer, but that's just wishful thinking at the moment.

Updates all around!

BASS HORN 

Lots of progress made on the Bass Horn. My tubing showed up sometime in March and I purchased some Cerrobend - then found the paint can full of pitch.... Bought a pitcher, thermometer, pan, and electric hot plate to melt the Cerrobend. Also bought some wood and made the big jig and some drawings of the approximate sizes for the valve crooks.

In bending the tubing, I had to first fill each pipe with vegetable oil, drain it and then fill it with Cerrobend. Then let it sit in a cold bath for 30 minutes, before bending it into the curves I needed.

The first part didn't go to well, I over-annealed on 30+" tube and burnt two holes in it.... ugh.... Second and third try were much better, the the second tube suffered a kink during the bending process. So I had to hammer out the marks and then will have to sand the hammer marks off before buffing and assembly.

The next issue I ran into, was that I couldn't get the ends to be as curved as I wanted. I have a 17" circle by which I'm bending the tubing, but because I have about a 1/2 inch or so where I plugged the ends, I couldn't get the extra bit to be as curved. The solution was to take a smaller diameter circle and bend the ends around that. This helped especially for the tube leading into the valve section and will help when I bend the branch after the valve section (so that it meets up with the fourth valve).

I also bent the leadpipe and cut the end to match the receiver. Just need to buff it and burn out the pitch, then buff again...

On Friday, I got two of the inner bows in relative positions, although I may need to refill them in order to get the exact position... Not much time left. Still need to address the bell and the paddles for the valves.... OH and bend ALL THAT OTHER TUBING, though I might not have enough for the fourth valve if I screw up another 30+" tube. AND I need to find braces!

Finally, I'm almost done with my King Jumbo econo-overhaul. Just need to solder on the last two guard wires and do a final buff/polish/cleanup. I've buffed the bell with rouge two weeks ago, even got inside the back of the bell! I think there's some gold plating left back there. The body should look just as nice once I get around to polishing.

Before and After (almost)