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Hi Tuba Experts,
I decided I just had to have a 1915 Boosey 3+1 Eb Imperial tuba to go with my 1970 3+1 BBb tuba and my 1975 3+1 euph. If I keep acquiring tubas, I may be forced to play in public at some point. The Eb is pretty dingy, but the price is right.

Photos show what looks like a replaced lead pipe, but the receiver is still European. What mpc would you recommend using for the horn, as is --- a Wicks 1 or 3 or what? and what would be your take on converting the receiver to a large shank?

I had some dire predictions of what would happen if we converted the BBb, but the repairman had a really good tuba grad student try out the conversion before finalizing it and it does seem to have been successful.

Whatcha think?

Wick 3 is the "standard" small shank mouthpiece for the Eb comp. If the horn is in good shape otherwise, please consider leaving the small shank alone. Mine does very well indeed.

Is this in "normal" 440 pitch?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tuba_W0QQitemZ250 ... dZViewItem

I absolutely agree with billako. And this applies to everything, not just tubas or even just musical instruments, but in the greater context of just about everything out there as well.

I used to have a Silverfaced Fender Vibrolux guitar amplifier which my folks bought for me new when I was in high school in the late 1970's. Great little amp, good clean tone that would get crunchy when you wanted it to. I used it for everything from garage bands to jazz bands and everything in between and on either side. Like, I suppose, everyone does at one point or another, I wanted "more" out of it. Then a replacement plug in solid state rectifier that could pass more current than the stock 5U4 rectifier tube, and a device that daisy-chained the two channels together by plugging into the 1st two pre-amp tube sockets to give an overdrive became available, more or less simultaneously. I bought both and modded my amp. Yes, the amp was marginally louder, and I got my on-demand overdrive, but the tone was harsher and grittier as well, which may have suited a couple of the harder songs my band played, but not in general. I also ended up blowing the reverb transformer and had to change tubes more often. So I ended up pulling the mods and going back to "original" specs, and got all the tone and tube life back.

The point being is the mouthpiece/horn combination as a whole is important, and you won't be able to change the characteristics of the horn but only marginally with a different mouthpiece that wasn't really designed for it, and even then, the results will usually be detrimental to the horn overall, although a single characteristic may be enhanced.

With that in mind, don't get me started on automobile engine mods....

Søren wrote:Is this in "normal" 440 pitch?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tuba_W0QQitemZ250 ... dZViewItem

With 19" bell, I think I am right in saying it must be 1970's, early 80's vintage, so should be "normal" pitch

Any Boosey & Hawkes horn must be, by definition, a post 1934 horn, so I would think it would be A=440.

windshieldbug wrote:Any Boosey & Hawkes horn must be, by definition, a post 1934 horn, so I would think it would be A=440.

But they were made in high pitched for brass bands up to the 1960's. However, 19" bells were only introduced in the 1970's, so it must be A=440

Sorry, just another Yank here...

Mike Johnson wrote: You could use a Wick 3 or 2 without the L on the existing receiver

I have used a Wick 2 on my 1930s era B&H Imperial EEb since 1973. However, it was necessary to turn down the shank to make it fit the receiver.

Have you seen this page by Matt Walters of Dillon Music?

I'd put the change in the ashtray, but I can't seem to find one in this Imperial...