Schediwy Ludwigsburg B-Tuba

[petter@brasseriet.no]

Dear Tubaplayers,
I have now after a year of waiting, received my restored and rebuilt german 5/4 B-Tuba. The maker is Schediwy from Ludwigsburg in Germany.
Does someone of you know this manufacturer? The tuba has a wonderful orchestral sound and has almost perfect intonation.
I guess the instrument is made between 1910 and 1930. I use it an a band playing original manuscript arrangements only, written for over 100 years ago.
I really feel the history inside when playing this instrument. If you have anything about Schediwy, please shout!
Pictures can be posted by request!

[imperialbari]

Photos always are fine for documentation.

Schediwy obviously is the German spelling of a Czech name.

Possibly a widow or daughter was behind the Schediwa company of Odessa/Ukraine company taking an 1885 patent on the helicon variant they named Herkulesophone.

The Ludwigsburg company used to be a supplier for the local court, which helps dating instruments in pre- and post-1918.

A somewhat odd Wikipedia article has a reference to Bergen, but also tells of the Ludwigsburg Schediwy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_ ... i_Schediwy

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[TubaGoon]

Yes please, toss up some pictures!!

[petter@brasseriet.no]

Here you can see some before and after pictures of the tuba, as well as some picture taken during the restore process.
All the best from frosty Oslo!

[Wyvern]

Very nice Petter! How big is the Kaiser? What bell diameter?

[imperialbari]

What does the engraving say exactly?

K

[petter@brasseriet.no]

Dear Tubaplayers,
as most very old tubas, the bell has a large throat but small bell. The bell is 42 cm / 16,55".

The engraving says:
F. Schediwy
Ludwigsburg

[oedipoes]

congratulations on that kaiser !
It looks probably better now than when it was new...

You will probably not post this in public, but would you mind sending me a pm with what you payed for the restoration? (I am not a tax controller or so...) an approximate estimation would be nice.
Since a have a nice kaiser too, it would be interesting to know what amount of EUR we are talking about, if I would ever want the same work done to mine.

How long did you have to wait until the work was done?
I'd bet it felt like a lifetime, if you wanted to start playing it...

Wim

[imperialbari]

Wim, please be aware that levels of costs differ quite a bit between even European countries. VAT may add to the differences.

I would wonder, if your country would not have several very competent repairmen. If you are close to the German border, you maybe even could find a workshop there, which is used to working with these oldies.

Klaus

[petter@brasseriet.no]

Dear Tubaplayers,
please keep in mind if you want to have your fine instruments lacquered after an overhaul/restoration, very few repair shops in Europe have the machinery to do these jobs in a professional way. Many wonderful repairs have been damaged by bad lacquer jobs!
The large factories do it nice as well as companies as Adams/Holland and Leopold Müller/Germany.

[iiipopes]

Magnificient!

[TubaGoon]

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Congrats.

[bort]

That looks amazing! Apart from the obvious silver plating, how much work had to be done to it? That looks like a ton of fun to play!

[oedipoes]

Wim, please be aware that levels of costs differ quite a bit between even European countries. VAT may add to the differences.

I would wonder, if your country would not have several very competent repairmen. If you are close to the German border, you maybe even could find a workshop there, which is used to working with these oldies.

Klaus

Klaus,

Thx for the advice. I did not plan to go abroad with this repair.
I left the kaiser last Saturday with a good repair tech here locally. He is making the instruments playable (fix loose parts, tubes and valves free, no difficult dent work).
I will evaluate his skills when I get the tuba back (but his reputation is very good).
I will also ask his opinion about restoring the instrument completely, or doing the dent ork only. It's interesting to know some other prices to be prepared if the repairman puts a price on the complete overhaul.

I'll play it for some time like that when I get it back, if the sound is ok, I can live with the dents until more funds.

Wim

[Alex C]

That is a beautiful restoration. Did you finish it in lacquer?

[petter@brasseriet.no]

Hi Alex,
I had the tuba lacquered by Leopold Müller GmbH in Germany. They have a very good environmental friendly high quality special lacquer. Some people think that lacquering old beautifully restored instruments is crazy, but since I have restored this instrument for personal use I will rather have it nice and shiny for many years, than brown, stinky and original.
All the best - Petter

[djwesp]

holy cow!

[Matt G]

Beautiful horn, but every time I see the name it makes me think of:

[edsel585960]

I know it's an old post but we don't see that many of these. Here's mine start to almost finished. https://photos.app.goo.gl/UhxofseZLkNkCuLd9" target="_blank