Boosey Tuba - What did I buy?

[Tortuba]

Here’s one for the historians on TubeNet..

I just bought a well used Boosey tuba. It is a three valve, BBb, silver, upright. It is 41 inches top to bottom, with a 17 inch bell. Lots of beauty marks but not bad overall.

The inscription on the bell is as follows:

Solbron
Registered
Class A
Trade Mark
Boosey’s
Light Valves
Boosey & Co.
Makers London
101711
Guaranteed
British Made
Throughout
The R.S. Williams & Sons Co. Ltd.
Toronto

The serial number(?) on the second valve is 77975

I bought it from a great 75 year old player who had owned it for 20 years. He bought it from a Salvation Army band in southern Ontario. He did not know if the band was the original owner.

I’ve checked the Horniman Museum site for a date of the numbers but I’m not sure which number is the actual serial number. If I take the number from the second valve, it would date to 1909, making it nearly 100 years old.

It has been used as is until recently, although it does have a few funky notes.
It does need some work done to the lead pipe and the valves could use some attention (maybe lapping). I bought this as hazardous duty horn, so I don’t want to make it pretty just more playable.

So, is this a real find or a “beaterâ€

[windshieldbug]

Henry Distin, London (whom Boosey bought out to start their brass instrument business) started building valve sets with one serial number applied for identification during that phase of the production. Valve production was separated from final assembly. The same valveset could be used for multiple horns. Then, when the instruments were assembled, finished and entered into stock, an actual company "serial number" was applied to the horn. This is the one that you will find on the bell.

This business practice was continued after Boosey bought the company, and also followed Distin to his new company in the U.S.

The actual serial number, then, is 101711, which indicates a 1917 birthday. Still pretty old!

The "Guaranteed British Made Throughout" indicates that his horn was made for export, and was a GB requirement. "The R.S. Williams & Sons Co. Ltd. Toronto" means that it was made for Canadian use.

"Class A" says that this instrument was from their prime production. There were other classes (just as now there are 'factory seconds')

[DonnieMac]

Hey, I got something like that: SN 99578 but 4 v, in Eb. I imagine it was made, the first time, in the late 1930's before the merger of B & H. I had it totally gone through i.e. remade with rebuilt and Bob Reeves aligned valves and with a nice matte satin silver plating. I think the project ran about $6k.
This tuba is an excellent player with a vertical intonation line without big horizontal kinks. Good sound. I would probably do it again. Unlike the modern tubas with beer-can metal, and here I'm including Hirs, Nerschl, Rudi, the metal in the Boosey has substantial thickness, like the 1930 Cadillacs.

[iiipopes]

If it is in otherwise good shape, it should be worth a few bucks to check for leaks and make sure everything is in line, including the usual new corks and felts and water key maintenance.

You didn't say whether or not it is a comp, but since it is a Class A, it probably is. does the return of the 3rd slide loop up and over to the top of the 1st valve piston above the 1st valve slide? If so, then it is a comp and it should play in tune very well all the way down to its limit of low E nat 123 below open 2nd ledger line BBb.

[sc_curtis]

...and it should play in tune very well all the way down to its limit of low E nat 123 below open 2nd ledger line BBb.

Where is Bob, and what would he have to say about this?

[MaryAnn]

I think there is only one explanation for the disappearance of Bob:

He has a girlfriend. After all, other disappearances on Tubenet can be attributed to that, so why not El Bobbo?

MA

[windshieldbug]

I think there is only one explanation for the disappearance of Bob

Shame on you! Bob's girlfriend IS his Eb!

[KarlMarx]

Shame on you! Bob's girlfriend IS his Eb!

Does the length of the female digestive tract add up to the main bugle of an Eb tuba?

Carolus Anatomusicus

[The Jackson]

I'd tape down her fourth valve, if you know what I mean.

[iiipopes]

If so, then it is a comp and it should play in tune very well all the way down to its limit of low E nat 123 below open 2nd ledger line BBb.

There's no such thing a limit. If you can buzz it in the horn, the horn will play it(Though it may not be too pretty) I'd play BBb's bellow that all the time on a three valve BBb Beuscher. We were meant to be.(Until I got my Rudy)

You know what I mean - practicalities here.

[WakinAZ]

Shame on you! Bob's girlfriend IS his Eb!

[Insert "false tones" joke here]

Eric "noticing the Bobster lurked as recently as two days ago, hopefully he's not slumming on that 'other lame-*** dominated by one so-called know-it-all with a famous last name' tuba site again" L.

[iiipopes]

For those who have not had the privilege of playing a B&H/Besson, because of the placement of the valve block, the taper of the bugle, and who knows what other tuba gnomes were offended in the manufacture of these tubas, as a general rule they don't do false pedals very well, if at all. On a good day I can get a D out of mine, and that's it. No Eb (gotta lip down or pull 3); no Db except on a really good day in a large room, and nothing lower.