A great discovery and some horn dorn...

[Tubajug]

Very cool! It must have just been that tarnished! The "before" pictures look like raw brass, which is why I thought it might have been plated for the "after" photo. Neat find! I hope it plays as good as it looks now!

[bisontuba]

Hi-
More pics of the horn--now in my hands.









Very interesting. Quite possibly, this was a four valve horn at one point. Rotors internally are marked 1, 2, & 4. Rotors are excellent and compression is at a '2.' Maybe it was used in the War (Civil War) and got damaged? However, there are no 'solder shadows' indicating where 4th valve tubing would have been. That is why the replicated German silver touches are '2 up, 1 down.' We have seen other 4 valve Graves tubas --but nothing by Graves in this shape configuration!-- with 2 up and two down. And despite a LOT of research by yours truly and others, no one has seen a horn by Graves with this design configuration. The shield is sterling silver and notates the founding of the Lawrence Brass Band (MA) in Feb of 1849... the horn was probably made in the late 1850's.
And.... It Does Play! Quite nicely too.
And it gets its public debut tonight at my talk!
Mark

PS. My repairman said he doesn't want to see German silver for a month....tough stuff to use in replicating parts!

[Mark E. Chachich]

Thank you for saving part of our collective tuba heritage and history.

Mark

[edsel585960]

It looks like a great restoration. Hardly looks like the same horn. Glad you saved a piece of history.