Posted by Rick Denney on February 07, 2003 at 17:39:47:
A business trip took me to Atlanta last week, with the opportunity to drive there and back, and so I left my new Holton with Lee Stofer at the close of the Army conference and picked it up from him a week ago. His shop is behind his house, and it is an ultra-cool tuba candy shop. I saw a 4/4 York in a spotless but disassembled state. He had a number of interested sousaphones, a helicon or two, and some most interesting old monster basses. He also had his 3/4 Rudy Meinl C, acquired after the Army conference, which he described in reverential tones, including the reverential approach he took in the decision to obtain it. Lee is the sort who makes careful decisions with calm conviction--just the sort of person one wants hammering on his tuba. I truly enjoyed the several hours I spent there talking with him and watching him work.
I wish I'd been able to leave the Holton with him longer. I could see the longing on his face to pull that bottom bow and bow cap and really go after some of those dents.
I no longer find air with my little finger--Lee fitted large Yamaha buttons on the existing stems, which required rethreading them. They are the same buttons I have on my 621, and they are big but not the currently fashionable huge. They feel perfect, and they look like they belong on the instrument. The ergonomics of the Holton are really good for such a large instrument, though to my thinking a stand is just essential. It's remarkable how so small a detail of so large a tuba can make such a big difference.
We discovered a few things. One was that the fourth valve tubing is an .815" bore. Some digging around in the archives revealed that this is not new knowledge, but it was new to me. The ports on the fourth valve are a bit smaller, meaning that it's the same trick as is used on the new Conns. Now I know why I hyperventilate every time I try to to play a low E. I also know why an F at the bottom of the staff feels as good on the fourth valve as on the open isntrument.
Those Holton builders did not pay much attention to detail, sad to say. The first valve loop was about 3/16" out of alignment, with the tubes too far apart on the valve end. Enlarging the space between them at the opening to make them parallel would have left the crook too tight on the slide. So, Lee removed one tube to trim it where it goes into the ferrule at the first-valve port, and discovered that the port tube and the valve tube didn't meet square, and that Holton had covered up this flaw with the ferrule. Lee filed the tube to meet the port square, with the result of aligning the tubes. Some Holton factory worked had skimped, and for 33 years, players have had to use two hands to pull the slide. The only tuning slide that didn't have to be realigned was the second valve. I can now pull slides to empty water without the sproing! of a slide ringing like a tuning fork, and without having to wrest half of it into position upon reinsertion.
Some Holtons have the reputation for very thin and soft brass. Not this one. We were unable to make much progress at all with a Dent Eraser, which we rather expected given that Dave Fedderly had already just about worn out his Dent Eraser on it. Lee is one of those techs who just can't bear to have the horn leave his sight with any flaws. We'd be talking, and he'd see something, like a small ding in an accessible spot, and without interrupting his current sentence he'd have it resting against an appropriate dent barrel in no time.
The mouthpipe bracket on the bell had been sunk into the bell stack a bit, and Lee lifted it along with removing a few small dents from the leadpipe and correcting a bit of bad soldering where the leadpipe goes into the valve. He also replaced the valve guides and dedented the tuning-slide crooks and valve knuckles, and expanded the main slide tubes which had been lapped down a bit aggressively at some point.
I can't actually say that it plays any better now than it did, because I didn't have any problem in how it played before (except for needing an extra tank for low F's). But it sure does work better mechanically. And it smells better, too.
I corresponded with Dave F. about that fat fourth-valve tubing, and he reported that he'd sleeved his down to center the low G's and F#'s better on his Holton C. I won't do that, but it surely made feel a lot better!
Now it's time to make an appointment with Mr. Elliott to do a bit of mouthpiece tweaking, now that I know the horn is working like it should.
Rick "saving the eye-candy treatment for the future" Denney