Posted by Wade on December 24, 2002 at 20:09:17:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Tubas know everything.... posted by SHS you-know-who on December 24, 2002 at 18:08:55:
Despite the leanings of many on this board, I rather happen to like those "Stalinman" BBb comics quite a bit, despite the rotten workmanship. They play well and make a nice sound. I own one (raw brass - from that site in Germany) that I do not use for my gig, but I enjoy playing it nonetheless. I have disassembled it and replaced all of the crappy braces, done much work to the valves and realigned three of the slides. I also lapped in the 1st slide and replaced the linkages, stop plates, and eccentric nuts with higher quality parts. The only way that I was able to do this was to get the horn in unlaquered brass. Lapping the slides gets really ugly with the poorly plated nickel versions due to the copper between the brass and the nickel. It can get very upsetting when you are lapping and discover just how THIN the nickel is on these tubas. It has been a really fun project horn.
I also own a pretty decent BBb sister to my Alexander 163 CC. (A PAIR of Alexander 163s in one home - JOY!!) It makes a hell of a nice sound, just like my CC.
Merry Christmas!
Wade "definitely not a BBb-vs-CC snob" Rackley