Posted by Gary Swart on December 29, 2000 at 21:27:08:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Tubing solution for a St Pete. posted by Doug on December 26, 2000 at 14:52:29:
Didn't mean copied as literally as that. The overall shape, bend of the tubing, tuning slide, water key location. As far a the valves are concerned, my St Pete had a German rotary valve system install after manufacturing but before sale to me. The valves are good but they are not 186 valves either in appearance or performance. I've read comments before about the thin metal, weak metal, easy to dent metal, and I can't respond much to that except to note that I've seen tubas and sousaphones of many makes with dents. I doubt that short of building them out of cast iron there is any way of avoiding the eventual ding or two, and give even the cast iron one to a kid and they'll figure a way to mash the bow or flatten the bell! The sharp "thingy" is not a problem for me. I use either a DEG support or a Meinl Weston harness. Like them both in different ways.