Posted by Andy Smith on December 19, 2003 at 21:38:19:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Engineered tuba revisited posted by Rick Denney on December 19, 2003 at 18:58:10:
I agree with these comments about valves, leadpipes and such. Since my starting my study of Band Instrument Repair, I've talked to some pretty high-up people at Conn-Selmer, Yamaha, and several other companies. The thing that I've learned from all of this is that the engineers that design tubas, flutes, and other instruments are trying to implement some of these ideas, but the same thing comes in the way all the time: tradition.
We have over 200 years of tradition in how to make instruments, and some great ideas that people are trying to put into permanent practice are just totally vetoed by tradition.
Let me give an example of this:
Back in the 70's, the F. E. Olds Company and the Reynolds company released a trumpet, called the Olds Pinto, and the Reynolds Ranger. This trumpet has plastic valve casings, with each valve being identical, as well as the same slide crook on the first and third valve slide, and a screw-brace removable bell. All of these are great ideas, particularly the ease of dissassembly and the interchangable valves, but these ideas didn't catch on.
Some of these ideas have caught on, but there are still more things manufacturers and designers can do to try to improve instruments, but as long as there are people who feel that tradition is the way to go, these ideas will be impeded by tradition.
Sincerely,
Andy "who really likes a modified Abel-Tretick method of seating flute pads" Smith
Bassdi(AT)aol.com