Posted by Ken H on June 04, 2002 at 01:15:26:
In Reply to: The Engineered Tuba posted by Jim Andrada on June 02, 2002 at 21:13:24:
Some intriguing ideas come to mind. On the case side of things, my old King came with a big wooden trunk which held the tuba with its small side on the bottom leaving the bell at the top. It had a couple braced contact points on each side and a strap to hold the horn securely in place with some padding at the bell, bottom and bottom bow. The main thing was that it was so well supported by the outer branches and bell, well back from the flare, that even when it was once dropped down a 3 storey flight of stairs the instrument did not suffer the least damage. Problem: it was timber and HEAVY.
Steve Rosse (Sydney) had a tuba in a new aluminum case which followed the design principles but was a lot light and had wheels. IT CAN BE DONE.
For engineered tubas.......... it might have been very interesting to see what Holton's fully computer designed 330CC would be like had it been designed for Jake instead of Harvey.
Ceramic valves and a different sort of linkage would be good areas to investigate.