Posted by Sterling on July 18, 2000 at 21:24:19:
In Reply to: buying a new tuba--high school posted by ken g on July 17, 2000 at 13:55:14:
If you decide to go with rotary valves, you should seriously consider sitting down with your students and explaining the concept of taking excellent care of the instrument. Many high school students take for granted how fragile the rotary system can be, and also don't understand that these horns are specifically engineered to work in the state they are in when you buy them. I saw one HS where the students tried to oil the valves by themselves and when they started they had no idea what they were doing. Now this beautiful Meinl has solder falling out everywhere b/c they broke the stems that lead to the rotars by accident and thought they could fix it themselves. The tuba is pathetic now and needs an overhaul on the linkages. They just need to be taught how to take care of them, they're not quite as easy as pulling out a piston and sticking it back in.