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In April 2025, I acquired a Rudy Meinl 4/4 CC. It's a nice horn that needs a bit of TLC. On Friday, I am dropping it off for the following work.

* Ultra Sonic Cleaning (She has a tank large enough for a 6/4 tuba)
* Bell repairs (remove crease and make bell more symmetrical)
* Misc dent work (whatever is reasonably easy to reach)
* Add a B&S thumb ring (picture below)
* Evaluate whether to replace the Dubro linkage with proper mini-ball or uni-ball linkages

BEFORE PICTURES



Current linkage. The 5th valve is original and it's loud and clunky.


Crease in bell near patch.


B&S Thumb Ring


I'll post additional pictures after it is back from the shop.

Careful, or you’ll start getting knee deep into making this thing look and play amazing, just like I’ve done with 3 or 4 horns…

Sousaswag wrote: Mon May 19, 2025 11:09 am Careful, or you’ll start getting knee deep into making this thing look and play amazing, just like I’ve done with 3 or 4 horns…

It already plays pretty well. It is presently my #2 tuba. I am hoping to have it play as though I have 2x #1 tubas.

I'm picking up the horn today, but Katy sent me some pictures of some of the clean up. Here's a preview

BEFORE - sloppy soldering of a "bespoke" slide pull


AFTER - cleaned up the solder join considerably


BEFORE - REALLY ugly soldering where the bell meets the bottom bow.


AFTER - Much better! New B&S thumb ring making a cameo

That’s great. Not that the clean up will make it play any better, but it will increase the pride in ownership, which… well it might.

The repairs and cleaning were a success. The bell was certainly in a fragile condition. It is in better shape now, but it has a couple of thin spots, one of which resulted in the patch, installed years ago. She removed the patch, did worked on removing the crease, but was afraid of causing damage. So she stopped and put the patch back. Perhaps in the future I'll spring for having @bloke order and install a new Miraphone bell. But I will decide on that later. For now the bell is smooth and intact. Additionally, she looked over the horn and cleaned up other places where there was some pretty sloppy solder work. The horn has a history, but it's a great player.

Full view


Valves cleaned up and cork installed for super quiet action.


New thumb ring. After cleaning and some polishing, you can see where the previous ring was.


Bell view. It looks much better in person than the picture captures.


Full view


Now it is time for me to play the crap out of this horn.

Yahoo! Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

For whatever reason, nearly every Rudy I see has a repaired bell. What are the owners doing to these things??

FWIW, I also read somewhere that Rudy bells may be particularly difficult to repair after previous damage... Anyone know if that's true?

Tell us how she plays when you've really gotten to know her!

Sousaswag wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 2:00 pm Yahoo! Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

For whatever reason, nearly every Rudy I see has a repaired bell. What are the owners doing to these things??

FWIW, I also read somewhere that Rudy bells may be particularly difficult to repair after previous damage... Anyone know if that's true?

Tell us how she plays when you've really gotten to know her!

The horn is very light for its size. So I suppose the light brass is part of the fragility. I asked @bloke about getting a Miraphone replacement bell and he did bring up the fact that Rudy's have a particular bell flair that is unique and part of their signature sound. So that will weigh into my decisions later.

tubatodd wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 2:25 pm

Sousaswag wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 2:00 pm Yahoo! Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

For whatever reason, nearly every Rudy I see has a repaired bell. What are the owners doing to these things??

FWIW, I also read somewhere that Rudy bells may be particularly difficult to repair after previous damage... Anyone know if that's true?

Tell us how she plays when you've really gotten to know her!

The horn is very light for its size. So I suppose the light brass is part of the fragility. I asked @bloke about getting a Miraphone replacement bell and he did bring up the fact that Rudy's have a particular bell flair that is unique and part of their signature sound. So that will weigh into my decisions later.

Rudy will make you a new bell. Talk to Lee Stofer. He has had Rudy fabricate new ones for customer horns.

That thing looks great now. You'll be more inclined to pick it up and practice now. See, the money spent will in fact make it/you play better!

York-aholic wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 3:17 pm That thing looks great now. You'll be more inclined to pick it up and practice now. See, the money spent will in fact make it/you play better!

For sure.

York-aholic wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 3:17 pm That thing looks great now. You'll be more inclined to pick it up and practice now. See, the money spent will in fact make it/you play better!

No doubt!

tofu wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 2:54 pm
Rudy will make you a new bell. Talk to Lee Stofer. He has had Rudy fabricate new ones for customer horns.

I had heard that @Lee Stofer is no longer a distributor for Rudolph Meinl. Perhaps he can comment and confirm or deny that.

tubatodd wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 3:31 pm

tofu wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 2:54 pm
Rudy will make you a new bell. Talk to Lee Stofer. He has had Rudy fabricate new ones for customer horns.

I had heard that @Lee Stofer is no longer a distributor for Rudolph Meinl. Perhaps he can comment and confirm or deny that.

I bet they would sell a bell to someone...
It's often cheaper to ship from there - DHL/USPS - than domestic shipping.

TubaTodd,
Rudi and I were not really in touch with each other for a couple of years, but that suddenly changed this summer - I ordered and promptly received a couple of new leadpipes for the 3/4 CC tuba, and some mouthpieces.

As of today, I sent a 50% deposit, and Rudi Jr. is preparing four piston Rudolf Meinl tubas to send to me. If you'd like to have a 4/4 bell, I think I have a used one in a bit better condition than what you currently have, and if you want new, now is the time to add one to my 4-tuba order and save on shipping costs. Feel free to give me a call!

.

MiBrassFS wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 7:33 am

Sousaswag wrote: Mon Jun 02, 2025 2:00 pmFor whatever reason, nearly every Rudy I see has a repaired bell. What are the owners doing to these things??

FWIW, I also read somewhere that Rudy bells may be particularly difficult to repair after previous damage... Anyone know if that's true?

RM bells are a bit different in shape and material properties. The cold working and tempering used allow them to produce their signature sound. This also (more than?) probably contributes to the need to handle them carefully. Their yield point (when stuff happens…) is a bit different than most players are accustomed. They’re a bit more springy when being repaired, so good results require care and determination. I don’t know where most of them fall in this brass hardness scale (varying somewhat…), but I would think somewhere n the middle.

O60: Annealed (soft)
H00: 1/8 Hard
H02: Half Hard
H04: Full Hard
H58: Drawn General Purpose
H80: Hard Drawn

I’ve ordered parts with good luck from RM. It’s been pretty much “you pay, he sends.”

‘Had to look up “glow up…”’ Heh, heh…

Just flushing out the brass properties a bit more - for typical 70-30 Yellow Brass. Should note that H58 and H80 are specific tempers for brass tube defined by ASTM B135 "Standard Specification for Seamless Brass Tube" you will not find sheet with those designations.

I second everything that was said about the RM bells.

They are the most likely to get creased when bumped and the most difficult to smooth back out compared to just about any make.

I bought a very nice playing 5/4 (you know: de facto 6/4) C quite a few years ago which I played for a few years, did things to maximize its appearance and playing characteristics, and eventually sold to a friend. I bought it with a damaged bell with no cracks or anything, but it took me months of mini-sessions of picking over it (by hand, as a dent machine or a roller really are not the things to use on these bells) to get it really smooth and nice. The saving grace with (the older ones of) them is that the lacquer is ridiculously thick, so they can take a lot of burnishing without rubbing through to the brass.

I don't know any technical jargon about brass and hardness and those sorts of things, but I would describe at least the older ones of these bells (out of ignorance of proper terms or proper jargon) as "borderline work hardened" - even when new.

I've never annealed one of these bells prior to repairing it, because they don't feel like they were annealed during manufacture, and I really don't want to change the character of their structure.

Any of the above comments are subject to criticism, with no fear of rebuttal.

A great looking horn! Your technician does terrific work!