Besson Compensating Euphonium Question

[imperialbari]

My galleries hold immense amounts of catalogue scans and other information on Besson/Boosey & Hawkes instruments.

At least since the WWII era the valve block through bottom bow have been identical on all versions aside from the shift from nickel plated to stainless steel pistons.

The variations are in the leadpipe and the bell dimensions, in the production methods, and possibly in the gauge of the metal especially in the bell area.

An expert repairman like Joe Sellmansberger warns about the immense cost of rebuilding the quite complicated valve blocks of worn out compensating euphoniums.

From my more modest point of view I would warn against the narrowness of the receiver/leadpipe areas of the pre-1972 samples.

Objectively the choice of mouthpieces is narrowed down. Subjectively I am a proponent of the large, that is modern bassbone sized, receivers.

But then my experience as a collector dictates me to tell, that the 80+ years old Bessons and other Brits are very alive instruments, even if my basis for that statement is limited to ownership of tuba, horn, tenor- and bassbone.

One often would like to kick the more modern Brits for their sloppy craftsmanship regarding especially their threading work.

But the older Brits knew something about treating sheets of brass in a way leading to very alive instruments.

One sometimes may doubt, whether intonation ever was a consideration of British brass makers. This being a very biased and certainly not totally fair statement. I have a very good, or rather excellent, Besson 981 Eb bass made to order in 1999.

However: in the euph matter anything but Yamaha or Hirshy is irrelevant to me.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[Rick Denney]

Many of you may know I'm on a quest for a new horn for myself. Can anyone tell me about the vintage "50 Medals of Honour" Besson Compensating Euphoniums?

The instruments are based on the original saxhorn designs produced by a range of makers (particularly Distin) in the latter part of the 19th century. Blaikely's automatic compensating system was seen on Boosey instruments from 1878. Boosey merged with Hawkes in 1930, and with Besson in 1948. From that time, Booosey and Besson instruments have been identical in terms of design, but even before that time, the differences between a Boosey, a pre-Boosey Besson or a Hawkes would have been hard to see. All of them used the Blaikely compensation system, just as do all current compensating euphoniums.

I'm not familiar with all the individual models produced over the years. I have handled various Besson tubas from the middle 1920's that said variations of "Besson", the address on Euston Station (if I'm remembering that correctly), and "Class A". In those days, instruments frequencly included in the bell engraving such things as patent dates and numbers and recent major awards.

After Besson was acquired by Boosey and Hawkes, the models were labelled "Imperial" or "New Standard". When the product line transitioned to the "Sovereign" line which was the same for instruments marked Besson or Boosey, the labels were somewhat unpredictable. I have a Besson four-valve compensating euphonium from 1974, with the large receiver ala Sovereign, but with no identifying model name at all. It is the same as the Imperial and New Standard instruments except for the larger mouthpiece receiver. I have compared that instrument to a recent Sovereign, and with the exception of leadpipe taper (which I could not see, but I'm taking Klaus's word on this), bell diameter, the presence of two additional water keys, and about 5000 dents, they were identical.

The serial number search on Besson's web site is not functioning at the moment. Apparently, providing that web service was a cost that had to be reduced "commensurate with the scale of operations". But the 120,000's were in the 1920's and the 500,000's were in the early 70's, by my own experience.

Rick "thinking '50 medals of honour' is an appellation, not a model name" Denney

[imperialbari]

Only a few small supplements to Rick’s posting:

The British brass industry underwent some major changes also 30 or 40 years ago.

The Salvation Army factory stopped production sometime around 1968. I have met their last production manager as a repairman in a London shop in 1978.

He told, that the SA had some horrible designs among their larger brasses, whereas I from my then Danish brass band (I played baritone) know, that the SA Bandmaster cornet was extremely estimated. I think that the 3 samples we got around 1969 were from the last batch.

From 1968 or 1970 Besson/B&H refused to continue their double model line of low and high pitch models. The high pitch was abandoned.

From the 1st of January 1974 Besson/B&H changed the euph receivers/leadpipes from medium to large(bassbone size).

There are a few more aspects to the story, but I have to go shopping for my sick neighbour now. I will see if I can remember to return to the topic.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre