Posted by Rick Denney on March 10, 2003 at 17:11:26:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Two-Way-Trigger??? posted by Tony R. Igger on March 10, 2003 at 16:05:17:
Mechanically, all my triggers and tuning sticks worked just as they were supposed to, or nearly so. But more recently I have found that my tendency was to memorize the physical location of the trigger for each note, and just move it there by habit. I wasn't actually tuning to the ensemble. When I started being conscious of my tuning within the ensemble through my ears, I found that a lot of slide manipulation is a distraction rather than an aid.
Where it is really useful is when you have one or two clinkers on the instrument that just need fixing. On my Vespro, I built a tuning stick to repair the truly horrible fifth partial. That one sharpened the note with a thumb-ring-equipped rod that ran up next to the first valve slide. I could put my fingers on the slide and my thumb through the ring, and when I pushed the first slide in I would also push in the main slide (this on a typical 4/4 rotary BBb tuba). It needed no spring, because my thumb was always there. Eventually, I sold the horn because I didn't like having to deal with that problem and my Miraphone (freshly overhauled) didn't have it.
I built a tuning stick on a Sanders/Cerveny BBb that was self-centering. I put a horizontal flat plate on the front of the third-valve tubing, with a hole in it. I ran a brass rod through the hole. It attached to a bell-crank apparatus at the bottom to connect it to the sideways main tuning slide, and to handle at the top. I used collar clamps above and below the plate with locking thumbscrews, and sandwiched springs between the collars (with washers) and the flat plate. I could adjust it by loosening and repositioning the collar clamps, but putting a turnbuckle in the rod would make basic tuning even easier. That instrument had a couple of notes that were flat, and the upper register went sharp. I'd push the handle to fix the flat notes and pull it in the highest register. But I never got the tuning slide to be fast enough, and in the end I used it only for the flat notes. I traded that horn for a Miraphone that played in tune, except for what could be adjusted on the first valve slide alone.
I considered a similar arrangement for the sharp upper register on my York Master, but fixing the receiver so that I could use a mouthpiece with a larger cup sorted that problem out to some extent. But I didn't play that instrument in that register often enough for it to be a problem in any case. I used to adjust the first-valve slide a lot on that instrument, but again it was mostly out of habit, and my teacher broke me of it. I found that an alternate fingering or two solved the problem more easily.
I'd like to shorten the first valve slide on the Holton--it could benefit from some adjustment on the staff C, but it's a bit too long. If my Holton had the typical BAT ultra-flat third partial, and if I was determined to live with that, I'd build a tuning stick that would sharpen the main slide considerably in that register. I'm glad I don't have to deal with it.
So, tuning sticks are useful on some instruments, but I think of them as an absolute last resort, and I'd rather have tubas that didn't need them.
Rick "whose opinion has migrated on the subject over the years" Denney