Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Alexander Tubas


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Posted by hear, hear!! on September 29, 2000 at 14:23:29:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Alexander Tubas posted by Dave on September 29, 2000 at 13:40:09:

I have a great, fantastic, wonderful-sounding Alex. It is the sound that I has been seeking for many years. It has the best pitch of any CC 163 that I have ever played, save for two. However, the pitch is still a real B**CH in a quintet setting. My quintet is a symphony ensemble, so they want a big and robust sound down there as in the orchestra, so I oblige them and deal with the pitch. If it were much more of a problem, I might sell the instrument. But, with work, the damn thing simply sings!!

However, many, many, many 163 CC's suffer from bowser-ish pitch. This is due to the fact that the horn was engineered as a BBb because that was and is the pitch of choice in the German Tuba Universe. Simply stated, the CC 163 is an ill-considered cut-down BBb. Also, Alexander generally assigned CC tuba duties to his apprentices, so there are many more manufacturing issues with which to contend on the old ones. There are problems with how much of the knuckle tubing got cut off where rotor housings join, causing quarter inch gaps in many cases in tubing that really needs about as much attention to detail as leadpipe work. Also, the place where the horn is truely mace into a CC was poorly designed, causing a taper that should have occured over the space of about a foot to end up being in a tube that is only five inches long and with a funky s-bend in it to boot. These are the major reasons that Alex BBb 163's have pretty good pitch, while their CC sisters are so often out to lunch. (The too-quickly tapering, s-shaped pipe is almost always the source or the infamous flat bottom-line G, by the way.)

I may, repeat MAY have come up with a kit of swapable parts to correct these problems...I hope, oh please, oh please...

If they work, I may be able to take old Alexander CC 163's and fix the pitch problems for around $750. If my local machine shop can crank out the parts at a sufficient quality level...who knows? But, as I am not sure as yet what these redesigned parts will do on a REAL tuba until I solder them in place, this post is anonymous to prevent anyone from viewing this as some sort of advertisment.

All lovers of old 1950-1969 Alexanders: please wish me luck, and maybe you will have a means to mate modern standards of intonation with your horn's fantastic tonal color.








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