Posted by Scott on May 12, 2001 at 18:54:18:
After reading the article about building your own tuba by Carl Kleinstuber about a year ago I've been curious to build my own tuba. So ever since then I've been looking for a tuba that would work well as a project horn, namely a horn with an intact bell and branches (I think that's what they're called). I'm not really interested in cutting a horn to a different key, but I realize that I might have to since I've heard that antique tubas often were tuned to something other than A=440.
Anyway, I finally found a tuba that I think would work. It's an Eb from around the turn of the century with everything intact that I wanted, the bell isn't too small, but it's missing anything that could have been removed from the valves (which is okay, since I was planning on replacing the entire valve set anyway). I haven't heard back from the tuba manufacturers yet (I e-mailed them earlier today) but I was expecting to pay $600-$1000 for the valve set. I don't know what I'm going to do for the valve tubes (branches?) yet. I didn't follow Carl's explanation in his article at this point, although I was planning on inquiring tuba manufacturers about the cost of buying a complete valve set (with tuning slides).
I searched the archives, however, and I'm thinking I might be getting in over my head. I have very little experience in brass repair or in metal working. My goal was not to make a really fabulous tuba (although that's the hope), I just want to get some experience with building tubas and build a playable tuba that I can I could sell to get most of my money back (remember I'll be selling a 5-valve horn with brand new valves). Are my expectations reasonable? Any suggestions? Advice?
Thanks,
Scott