TubeNet

'm looking for Marzan info. I recently purchased a Marzan euph-- 4 front valves, fully compensating, lacquered brass, medium (European) shank, ser. 71105x. So far I really like it. It seems to play well from pedal FF to as high as I can play. As mostly a tuba player, I've long preferred the front valve arrangement (more comfortable, better drainage) but had despaired of ever being able to afford a Willson 2975, which seems to be the successor to Fred Marzan's design. I'd really like to find more info about when this particular horn was made. Dr. Marzan's patent dates to 1971, as I found out from Dan Schultz's website http://thevillagetinker.com/Marzan%20Horns.htm. From what I've picked up on various forums, the Marzan horns were made in the early 1970s by several European makers. The best-looking one I've seen was Kit Johnson's Sanders-made Marzan CC tuba. I suspect Willson made my euph. Any info would be appreciated.

ABQtuba wrote:... The best-looking one I've seen was Kit Johnson's Sanders-made Marzan CC tuba. ....

If you're talking about the copper Sander (note the lack of a trailing 's') tuba, it belonged to Fred Marzan, but was not a Marzan branded tuba.

You might want to read this too:
http://www.iteaonline.org/2008/members/ ... php?page=m" target="_blank" target="_blank

And some of these:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Fred+Mar ... =firefox-a" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thanks, CJK. I saw the copper Sander only briefly at the Sacramento jazzfest last year and didn't see the branding on it. It does have the slanted rotor stack characteristic of tubas actually branded with the Marzan name.

I remember seeing Carole Nowicki's 2001 interview with Fred Marzan in the ITEA journal a few years ago. Didn't have time to read the whole interview today, but there is an interesting anecdote in the middle (quoting Dr. Marzan): "Willi Kurath (Willson Instruments) was working on this euphonium here, the compensating model, you’ll never believe this–see, I really wasn’t sure of myself with the euphonium because I’m not a euphonium player. I know the instrument, but I was doing all the testing. The G (you’ll never believe this) was flat. It’s impossible for G to be flat, and it was flat! That guy, he went crazy. I was over there seven weeks. I was there six weeks, and I spent the seventh week over in another place. We couldn’t find out what the problems was. Willi was going crazy. He lost sleep over it, and he was getting headaches, just going crazy. I was always there with him first thing in the morning when the shop opened, I closed it with him. We ate at his house for the most part, or I took them out.

"I came in there one morning–he wanted to make the valves themselves conical, each successive valve, and that’s not a necessity. Who am I to tell him how to do it, but I’d say to him, “No, Willi, that’s not the problem,” in my limited German. “Jah, that’s the problem, ventilen!” I’d say, “No, Willi, that’s not the problem, because if it was the problem, they would do the same thing with Conn or Martin, or anywhere else, they all have four valves.” Well, I came in there one morning, and he said, “Fred, try this.” So, I tried it, and the G was in tune. It was right where the bottom bow–he had done something–something didn’t suit him, so he took it apart to resolder it, and then when he did it, he had to expand the tube or something. I can’t recall whether it had contracted, whatever he did, he had to reshape it. He put it together to refit it, and he never thought anything about the G in the process. It was just something he didn’t like. He is a marvelous workman. He is an artist. He said, “Try this,” and I tried it. He had just tried it, and the G was in tune!"