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I was checking out militarymusician.com and found a new compensating York BB-Flat Tuba on their website. Are one of the large tuba makers abroad producing these as a stencil under the long defunct Michigan based manufacturer's name? How do they play? Thanks.

The Yorks are being made by the Keilwerth-Schreiber (spelling?) company and are being imported. I am not a BBb player but was able to hear some players on the York BBb at a display.

It sounds great, lots of weight to the sound and the guys who played it said that it seemed to be quite nimble, as opposed to the Besson BBb's which produced boulders but without much agility.

Opinions only.

Boosey and Hawkes bought the rights to the York name in 1971. With the demise of English Besson, I believe that these horns are built using Besson's tooling by a former Besson subcontractor.

Boosey and Hawkes bought the rights to the York name in 1971. With the demise of English Besson, I believe that these horns are built using Besson's tooling by a former Besson subcontractor.

I had a chance to speak to both York and "new" Besson company reps at NABBA last April, and that's part of the story that I heard. The York rep said that the middle management from the old Besson went with York, also. Here is their web site-

http://www.york-brass.com/index.htm

I had a chance to play the York E flat and B flat compensating horns, and both seemed very nice at first glance. I particularly liked the E flat. I never liked the Besson Sovereign B flat, and the York was similar in ergonomics to the Besson- too big, too tall, too awkward, at least for a short guy like me. But the E flat was a really sweet horn and a bit freer blowing than my 20 year old Sovereign. The Sovereign design had certainly been tweaked a bit, particularly the lead pipe.

The Besson representative made it clear that all of their instruments were based on the old Besson designs but updated. They bought the name and the inventory for Besson but took none of the employees and manufacture their own parts rather than rely on a contractor, as the old Besson had done in the last years of their life. They didn't have any basses to play-test.

There is even a third fragment of the old Besson- London Musical Instruments- making similar instruments. I haven't seen any of their instruments, though. It seems pretty clear that not all three of these companies will stay in business for long. The market for primarily Brass Band instruments isn't large enough to support them all.

Bill Anderson

Using the name in the UK is an allusion NOT to the original USA York factory, but to the geographic area known as York, England, which is one place where factory brass bands originated and flourished in the early days of the brass band movement with their original intent: give something for the factory workers to do as a pasttime instead of drinking it all away at the nearest pub, and give them some loyalty and pride from the development of the contesting system and such.

windshieldbug wrote:Boosey and Hawkes bought the rights to the York name in 1971. With the demise of English Besson, I believe that these horns are built using Besson's tooling by a former Besson subcontractor.

My guess is that Boosey owned the rights to the York name only in the UK, maybe Europe, but not the US. I'm guessing that because Brook Mays was using the name as a stencil for some of their in-house products before the bankruptcy.

Additionally, there was a delay in bringing the Yorks into the US because of the name. If Besson had owned US rights, when Schreiber acquired Besson they would have imported Yorks to the US right away. As it stands, it took them months.

Brook Mays' acquisition of names (York, S. Schmidt) turned out to be one of their most valuable a$$et$ in bankruptcy.