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I was doing some research and encountered an article on Renold Schilke. For a time in the 1920s, he worked with the Mahillion factory in Belgium and this influenced his design concepts.

The article also states that Schilke, at some point, made tubas. I've not heard of any (of course, there's lots that I've not heard of) and wonder whether anyone here has ever seen or played one.

Yep, he made a prototype under the Schilke name but it never went into production. Charlie Hunter owned it before he passed away. Schilke did work with the Canadian Brass for their first series of instruments and designed a tuba for Chuck. Then there was the work Schilke did for Yamaha - don't know what he had to do with their tubas and euphoniums.

I was in Chicago when the Schilke F tuba was being developed with help from Arnold Jacobs. Jake thought the Besson F was the best F tuba at the time and so they used that instrument as the starting point. The proto-type played better than most F tubas that were available. The project lost steam and was completely abandoned as Reynold left the business.

Eventually, the shop started taking parts off the F tuba and it was relagated to being the "Christmas Tree" tuba. I was unaware that it had ever been sold.

I was surprised when the Yamaha F (YFB-621) first appeared. To my memory, the 621 was virtually a copy of the Schilke F. If anyone has a picture of the Schilke F, I'd like to confirm my memories of the similarities between the two tubas.

So yes, Reynold made tubas, but they were nothing like the Mahillion-DuPrinz tubas. He may have learned the craft in Belguim but his designs were much more individual.

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 4:21 pm Post subject:

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As Lew said, the 201 is a 3 valve version of the 321. Back in the early 70's, Schilke presented a clinic at SUNY Fredonia where I did my undergrad work among other things. He designed many of the Yamaha instruments that are available today and eventually sold the patents to Yamaha - I don't know the details on that. He brought the prototype of the 321 with him to Fredonia. My tuba prof., Rudy Emilson and myself, played it and liked how it played, but we both thought that it was an uncomfortable instrument to hold. Mr. Schilke said that was the major complaint he was getting about the tuba and he was thinking of redesigning it. I guess he decided not to.

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Here is a link to the Renold O. Schilke biography:

http://www.dallasmusic.org/schilke/Biog ... round.html

This is part of the "Schilke" section. Another page there notes that Schilke made "some" other tubas using Yamaha parts.

Michael Moore in Atlanta has a Shillke 5-piston F tuba that he uses only for the Bear solo in Petrushka. He also owns a 621 F that got quite a bit of use.

Didn't the Daellenbach tuba originate with at least some of the parts of the YBB-103? The bell on the 621 and the 103 appears to be nearly the same.

I owned a 5 valve Schilke F tuba. It seemed to be made of Yamaha Eb tuba parts. It was a top action horn with the fifth piston on the side like an English style Eb, played with the left hand. I sold this horn to Scott Mendoker some years ago, but perhaps this is now Michael Moore's tuba?
It was a great horn with the exception of some intonation quirks. I sold it because the top bow was too close to the valves and I started to get a touch of Carpel Tunnel after playing it.

Alex F wrote:I was doing some research and encountered an article on Renold Schilke. For a time in the 1920s, he worked with the Mahillion factory in Belgium and this influenced his design concepts.

I know that Mahillon did some of the pioneering work of figuring out how conical brass instruments work-- figuring out (f'rinstance...) that if you make the 3rd branch narrower, how it'd affect each overtone. The German factories still use Mahillon's method.

Scooby Tuba wrote:

Doc wrote:I own York #3.

No, you don't, I do.

Who cares? I have York #4, which Bill Johnson was keeping under wraps when Fisher bought everything else. No case, though.

Alex C wrote:I was surprised when the Yamaha F (YFB-621) first appeared. To my memory, the 621 was virtually a copy of the Schilke F. If anyone has a picture of the Schilke F, I'd like to confirm my memories of the similarities between the two tubas.

My own understanding, support by nods and lack of disagreement from Chuck Daellenbach, was that the 621 WAS the Schilke design, and that Schilke was doing his design much the same way many tubas are designed by starting with available parts. He and I compared notes briefly (at a master class) on my 621 F, which was then very new on the market.

The small CC tuba that I've always seen Chuck pictured with, including back in the days when the liner notes and programs claimed the CB played custom gold-plated instruments by Schilke, looks like a 621 Yamaha.

Thus, it may be that Yamaha built a whole series on the small branches that were originally a Schilke design, or that Schilke used those outer branches as a starting point. I'm curious as to when the 103 first appeared on the market. I recall seeing notes regarding the CB's custom Schilkes starting maybe mid-70's when the CB first started gaining popularity. The C was available at the least by the early 80's, but the F didn't come out until 1989 or 1990. I bought mine in February 1991, and it was the Yamaha show demonstrator at the end of the first year of shows.

Rick "speculating from bits and pieces" Denney

Rick Denney wrote:Thus, it may be that Yamaha built a whole series on the small branches that were originally a Schilke design, or that Schilke used those outer branches as a starting point. I'm curious as to when the 103 first appeared on the market.

The YBB-103 debuted in 1976 and was in production until the early 90's, which would probably make it a good candidate for parts. It was IMOHO, one of the best 3/4 student tubas that Yamaha produced.

I've got this one... that's a Schilke Tuba