Posted by Jay Bertolet on July 30, 2000 at 10:18:32:
In Reply to: Question About Overhauling Horns posted by zkl on July 30, 2000 at 10:02:55:
I had my Rudy 4/4 overhauled about 6 years ago and it played almost exactly the same as it did before the overhaul. For me, the biggest change was the valve action (which was quieter and quicker/smoother) and the response (which was a little better after all that gunk was cleaned out of the horn). The intonation and tone quality didn't change one bit.
I'm not an expert in overhauling tubas, but my understanding of the process is that if the horn isn't put back together correctly it can affect the playing of the horn. Fortunately for me, I had an excellent technician do the work so everything came out fine. I was also very encouraged to discover that the horn didn't play alot better after I had it overhauled. I think that means it was put together correctly in the first place. I have seen cases where a horn was overhauled and afterwards it played much better. But I've never seen a case where an overhaul was done and the horn played worse afterwards, except one instance where the leadpipe was replaced on the horn during the overhaul. It played worse after and I attributed that fact to the replaced leadpipe, which was fabricated as a duplicate and wasn't a factory part.
My opinion for what its worth...