Posted by Joe Sellmansberger on January 14, 2000 at 00:14:47:
In Reply to: Re: Re: problems with hirsbrunner rotors posted by Peter C. Hirsbrunner on January 13, 2000 at 10:05:02:
By using the word "are", sir, do you mean that at the present time you are continuing to sell new rotary-valved tubas with rotors made in this way?
The problem, from my experience, is so severe as to make these instruments, in my view, unreliable. An extremely hot concert hall or storage in an automobile in the summer are not required to trigger the binding of the rotors. Merely playing one of these instruments for twenty minutes in a normal room and warming it up to regular playing temperature (just warm enough to play up to pitch) will trigger the malfunction.
I would hope, for the sake of lack of consumer frustration, that your current production consists of traditional solid bronze construction.
On your piston-valved instruments, I believe that it might be helpful to take one last look at the alignment of the slide tubes (particularly the upper #1, upper #3, and upper #4 -- slides that a player might wish to be able to operate effortlessly) prior to finishing and plating.
All of that having been said, I surely do enjoy nearly every other aspect of your instruments (Look in my tuba case, and see what brand of tuba is in there.) and am grateful for your contributions toward perfection of the instrument. It is easy for someone like me to offer criticism such as this, but impossible for someone like me to fabricate hundreds of magnificent tubas, as you do.
Joe Sellmansberger
Memphis, Tennessee &
Oxford, Mississippi