TubaForum.net

Ok, no real protection, but it's lightweight and solves the problem of never being able to transport your detachable bells around with the body's hardcase, albeit very cheaply....this is provided you dont bang the bag into everything you see. Maybe wrap in blankets first, then insert in bag.

I bought a big one yesterday to transport my recording bell around and it was very useful to get from my car to the space without people staring at me for carrying a tuba bell out of its case, which is what I usually do with the hardcase in the other hand.

One step farther, I put my Martin monster eb in one of these, and the whole horn fit in a big 32 inch version of these from the container store.

https://www.qvc.com/bethlehem-lights-he ... 5541956355

I'm not posting to start a disagreement...

...but I've thought (a bunch) about transporting tubas with detachable bells, and it just seems to me that - UNLESS it's a sousaphone (whereby the bell curves over at a full 90 degrees, and the body DONUTS right over the bell itself) that there's just no advantage to detachable bells on "concert" tubas OTHER THAN having BOTH a recording AND an upright bell (and putting up with the nuisance of the detaching feature to have a choice of bells).

Even with a helicon (whereby the "donut" factor is there), UNLESS the detachable bell is extraordinarily short, it's not going to compact the instrument in one way (without enlarging it in another way).

My E-flat detachable bell Besson...(yeah...I have a bell hard case and a body hard case)...but (seriously), it's just easier to wrap a quilt around it (assembled), run one or two seatbelts (back seat) around it, and put the other stuff (electric bass, amp, etc.) in the very back.
I DO have an aux. 19" upright bell for that same instrument, but (due to the upper bow on the tuba being factory-shortened - to accommodate the necessary extra length of the recording bell) the tuba (with the upright bell attached) ends up being just about as tall as an old-style King BB-flat tuba (with the upright bell attached) so - still - hard-or-soft-case-problematic.

If that thing you've found works for you, all power to you and a super-duper Merry Christmas !

A few years ago, I bought - eBay - a just-about-mint Meinl-Weston (for a rotary tuba) upright detachable (16 inch?) bell. it came in a wooden cubic felt-lined case shaped just about like your soft thing. again: inconvenient...more stuff to carry, would have done just as well inserted into the tuba and in a one-piece tuba case, (etc.), I sold it (to someone who had bought a M-W body-only (one of those military surplus auctions, maybe?) and - of course - included that box. My guess...?? That box is either in their attic or discarded.

I'm glad to see you posting !
You don't post particularly often.

Pleased to say the results are in!




This is the QVC Bethlehem Lights heavy duty wreath bag. It actually has some of its own padding and fits the conn detachable bell tuba bells. Get them before the season is over. Pictured is the single wreath bag that surprisingly fit my conn upright, The double wreath bag actually fits two detachable bells, so to bloke's point, bring two bells to your next rehearsal.

I see it as an inexpensive solution to carry something that would be very awkward otherwise.

History. There is nothing new except the history you don't know. Bell-front tubas were developed for one purpose, and one purpose only: for recording in the pre-electronic age, hence the name "recording bell." They could be directed at the recording cone (notice I did not say microphone - those had yet to be invented), and usually were substituted for double basses in early orchestral recordings in order to actually get some tone onto the recording, especially as made famous by "Chief" Kuhn.

Conn turned the sousaphone bells forward for better projection when marching, as opposed to Sousa who wanted the bells upright for concert, what we now call the "raincatcher" version.

I had one instance on a stage that had felt fabric in the rigging between the rows of theater lights that in order to get the tone out front I had to play either a recording bell tuba or a souzy. Other than that, I have never experienced anywhere else where having a recording bell was advantageous to the tone, intonation, or overall contribution to the ensemble indoors.