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you could either contact Besson directly or find your local besson dealership, they sell the cases seperately, and the tuba cases have wheels to make transport easier.
A mid seventies sov will have a 19" bell, and a badly fitting hard case would be just as bad as the gig bag.

peter birch wrote:you could either contact Besson directly or find your local besson dealership, they sell the cases seperately, and the tuba cases have wheels to make transport easier.
A mid seventies sov will have a 19" bell, and a badly fitting hard case would be just as bad as the gig bag.

The Sovereign tubas weren’t introduced until 1982. The transitional Besson Imperial Eb and BBb tubas came with 19" bells, if they were 3+1 compers, in 1979. The 3 top piston compers came with 15" and 17" bell respectively. Their cases were thin plywood with some cushioning inside.

I haven’t had the chance to do a side-by-side comparison, but as far as I can see the older New Standard/Imperial Eb tubas had the exact same frame as the 981/982 Sovereigns of up until at least 1999. The differences were in leadpipes and in the bells. Your tuba should fit in the molded inside of the plastic case of the Sovereign models yet with some slack around the bell, which you may pad up.

I am not too impressed by the case for my 981, especially not the wheels, but I have seen a fellow bandsman use such case for his old type 3+1 comper.

Klaus

Blocks and sheets of medium hard acid-free foam might work well.

A foam cone to go into the bell could be made so large, that it would keep the bell edge from bumping in either direction.

Klaus