TubeNet

There are a number of board members reasonably at home with the developments of British tubas (Besson, Boosey, Hawkes, Salvation Army, and more). My 2 Eb tubas are Bessons from 1870 and 1999 respectively.

What made me not respond to your first asking some days ago was the term "Brevette", which I never have seen in connection with British instruments.

However Besson originally was a French instrument making family, from which some members moved to London. There have been made Besson instruments in Paris as well as in London during a longer period starting some time around 1850.

What disturbs me even more, is the term "Class A", which the British factories used to mark their pro-level instruments. I never saw "Brevette" and "Class A" on the same instruments (a disclaimer for potential memory lapses must be entered here).

If you could send me a thorough photo documentation of your sons tuba, I might be able to relate it to the fairly large number of British tubas represented in my online brass galleries.

What I need is blueprint type shots of the front and the back, detailed shots of the valve system and the bow guards, plus readable shots of all engravings. The last ones can be hard to get, so please rather one more "redundant" shot, than too few of them.

Especially concerning the engravings my preferred resolution is 300dpi.

I hope you will allow me to add these photos to my galleries.

All owners of interesting brass instruments are welcome to send me such photo documentation at

YorkMasterBBb@yahoo.com

If some of you have older catalogues I would love to get scans of these also.

Klaus

There is a cornet listed on the newly started horn-u-copia website catalogwhich has both 'brevette' and 'Class A' on it. Although this site has, so far, primarily American and Canadian instruments, you may be interested.

Having computer problems not solvable in a small town at the end of the week, I have jury-rigged my old computer. Hence the delay in my response.

The tuba in question can be seen here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 7320539997

It looks like a model, which was made almost unaltered from before 1930 through circa 1982.

It looks like it has the infamous ball-buster on the bottom bow guard. Originally it was intended to be placed in a "cupl" in the saddle of mounted bands. There also have been belts or harnesses intended to support the tuba during marching.

I have played a band-owned 3+1P version with a 19" bell (only made from 1978 through 1982) with narrow leadpipe and ball-buster. I was given a stand with a small cup on the top.

The only oddity with this tuba, which I never saw before, is the branch leading the air back from the 3rd slide to the 1st piston. In most cases it follows a semi-circular path. Here it is straight with angular bends. Apparently it has no effect on the playability as you report.

There are lots and lots of documentation on older and newer British brasses in my galleries. Some find the Yahoo system quirky, but that’s what I can afford for hosting well over 2GB of material. If you are met with "Group Check" or the like, then go join the group in question directly from the links on top of all of the catalogue versions (Word and .html).

Congratulations to your son on his "new" tuba! I own the miniature version in form of a Boosey & Hawkes Imperial Bristish style baritone with the same compensating system.

Please be aware, that there were a series of mergers among British makers up until WWII. Hawkes, Boosey, and Besson all are relevant search words, when browsing either my catalogues or any other web source.

Klaus

tubafreaks7 wrote:Other than the crossover from the third to first valve, the tuning slide is also "weird." It's HUGE. About a foot long, offset to fit around the bottom bow, 1" diameter going in and inch and a half coming out. I have played on Bessons before and this is unlike any tuba I've played. I'm amazed at how free blowing it is, but alot of that could be my mouthpiece. When I tried a smaller cup, it's real easy to split the tone on low FF.

What you tell quite certainly relates to an instrument converted from the old British high pitch standard of A=459 (or was it 457).

From around 1970 the British makers refused to make any more high pitch instruments, as this forced them to keep a double production system and a double inventory.

Many less wealthy bands couldn’t afford to buy all new low pitch instruments. When I was a fairly frequent reader of the weekly magazine "The British Bandsman" during the late 1970-ties, it still was flooded with advertisements like: "We will turn your whole band from high pitch to low pitch within a week!"

We didn't import high pitch instruments to Denmark. And I doubt they were imported to the US as lately as in the 50-ties but for in one certain context: the bands of the Salvation Army.

I'm not a member of the SA, but I respect them highly. They provided me a night lodge in London, when the planned for student hostel was overbooked.

Thanks for the supplying photos you sent me. I will deal with them as soon as possible. Right now I am involved in 3 tuba tracings. I’m enthustiastic, but my work capacity is limited.

Klaus