Posted by js on December 11, 2003 at 23:10:48:
In Reply to: Here's the reason why... posted by Dan Schultz on December 11, 2003 at 22:48:37:
I'm doing a quickie overhaul of a Conn 24J 4-valve tuba...trying to finish it up by TOMORROW - because I'm tired of looking at it and because its sold and I really want the money WAY more than I want the tuba.
Ya know, a couple of the branches really weren't soldered together very straight at the Elkhart factory - probably at least 5 degrees off of colinear to be truthful...and I found four or five FACTORY-placed large blobs of solder hidden on the exterior of the instrument - not anywhere near solder joints (all true).
After I've completely straightened the instrument out and put it back together properly, the F at the bottom of the staff only plays about 32 cents flat and the Bb at the top of the staff is less than 13 cents sharp.........
;^)
Yeah, I'm being a bit facetious, but I mean no harm. If those unsoldered crooks or tubes were halfway OK-fitting, they probably lost no more air than the well-used pistons on that old baritone.
Give me 35 stray solder blobs and 20 ill-fitting joints in a good instrument over perfect fit and soldering of parts in a bad instrument.