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I just received yesterday an F tuba I purchased off flee-bay. It was advertised as a Weltklang.

When I received it, the bell has the Weltklang logo engraved, but underneath that it has Rudolf Meinl engraved.

I am a little confused by this. Were there ever any instruments made by Meinl under the Weltklang name?

I cannot find a serial number anywhere on the instrument.

Here are a couple of pictures, although the one of the engraving is a poor quality. I'll try to get a better photo tonight if anybody is interested.

The bell was made by Weltklang worker R.Udolph, Mein'l

So how does it play?

As well as an older B&S Symphonie ?

I was somewhat interested in that tuba but the seller seemed incapable of answering simple questions so I gave up.

cjk wrote:So how does it play?

As well as an older B&S Symphonie ?

I was somewhat interested in that tuba but the seller seemed incapable of answering simple questions so I gave up.

I can't give a good answer right now, for a few reasons:

1. My chops are really, really out of shape. I haven't played seriously for a long, long time.

2. The second and fifth valve are really (really) sticky right now. I'm still working on them, and trying to decide whether I need to take it to a shop to get those two valves worked on. (Three tuning slides are also stuck, but I think some penetrating oil will solve that problem soon.)

I don't think this tuba is the Weltklang version of the B&S Symphonie, though. (I know there are some Weltklangs out there that are.) The tubing wrap seems significantly different. I intend to do some measurements and compare those to the Symphonie specks (just haven't gotten around to it yet).

Considering all those caveats, I have done some playing on it, and I already love the sound. It does remind me a bit of the B&S Symphonie I used in graduate school. The high range really sings. The low range pops out easily (although it will be a long process to give those notes the fuller sound I need for them).

I don't want to turn this into an E-bay thread, but you are right, bidding on this one was a bit risky. Now that it has arrived, I'm pretty confident I got a screaming deal (assuming the 2nd and 5th valve issues aren't more difficult than I believe they are going to be.)

I cannot tell anything about the bell engraving from your photo, but am guessing that it has the normal "Weltklang" engraving, with "Rudolf Meinl, Diespeck/A." underneath in simple block letters.

While stationed in Germany in 1988, Mark Stauffer and I took his Dad's (Dr. Don Stauffer's) old F tuba, a no-name, 1920's vintage 5-rotor instrument, to Rudolf Meinl for a restoration. They repaired cracks in the tubing to where they were invisible, and basically totally overhauled the instrument to virtually like-new condition. When we received the gleaming, freshly lacquered F-tuba, we noticed that the bell now had, "Rudolf Meinl, Diespeck/A." in small block letters on the bell. We also noticed that they had re-configured the tubing for the 5th valve and had made a new slide for it, making it work much better than original.

Dr. Stauffer sold that instrument through a Tuba Exchange consignment in the spring/summer of 1995. If anyone knows the whereabouts of that instrument now, please contact me.

I seriously doubt that Rudolf Meinl was ever involved in the manufacture of a Weltklang tuba.

Lee Stofer wrote:I cannot tell anything about the bell engraving from your photo, but am guessing that it has the normal "Weltklang" engraving, with "Rudolf Meinl, Diespeck/A." underneath in simple block letters.

Yes, and then "Made in Germany."

Thanks for the valuable information. I imagine my tuba got that engraving in the same way as the one you described.