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So I finally bought this tuba from my friend after tryng to sell it for him for over a year. If you recall it had a big conn bell on it. I had posted pix of the bell and asked if anyone knew what horn it might be from. Harvey seemed to think the conn bell is an old sousa bell that was cut on an angle at the collar and fitted onto the Buescher collar, perhaps the original Buescher bell was damaged or perhaps the owner wanted a bigger bell?? just hypothesizing (ask your mother)



Bloke just happened to have an old Buescher bell of the correct vintage. It did not have a collar on it however so Harv took the old collar off the Conn bell and mounted the Buescher bell. It is a cute 17" diameter bell. Certainly a lot easier to carry around than the big 24" bell. It even fits in the trunk of my Escort! Looks more like a bell front baritone than a tuba. According to serial number lists I have found online it dates from 1924.



Next step is to invert the valve tuning slides, so i can tune some notes a little better and give it a good cleaning. The valves are not pretty but it still has pretty good compression. I think I will wait for a valve job at this point. I can't wait to get it back. I will be sure post "after"pix at that time! I actually played it on an outdoor pops orchestra concert Sunday afternoon and the director liked it! Sounds very nice with a Sellmansberger Symphony in it!

ken k

these are not quite yet "after" pix; how about "during" pix?
Harv just cut the first and third valve slides and inverted them so the slides can be pulled from up top. He took out some dents and did some polishing. Next step is a valve job and some more polishing!



Its funny after cutting the first valve and turning it around the second space C is now much more in tune but the rest of the first valve notes did not go sharp like I expected??



ken k

ken k wrote:It's funny, after cutting the first valve and turning it around the second space C is now much more in tune, but the rest of the first valve notes did not go sharp like I expected?!
ken k

Ah, yes: the vagaries of nodes and antinodes. Your bell will have a lot to do with that, also. On my 186, with the St Pete 16 1/2 inch bell, C is in tune and is not flat; but midline D is very flat. OTOH, with the larger recording bell, all of the 5th partials are slightly flat.

bloke i will try to get a better pic of the bell this weekend. I could not get good lighting last night. Yes the engraving is beautiful.

k

I finally bought a new camera and got some pix of the beautiful engraving on the Buescher bell. It was hard to get good photos of the engraving without reflections and glares. hopefully you can still see the detail and beauty of this engraving.



The engraving is huge,measuring a good 12" tall and 9" wide at the top. Also it is located ont he side of the bell rather than the top rear of the bell. Very interesting.

ken k

ken k wrote:The engraving is huge,measuring a good 12" tall and 9" wide at the top. Also it is located ont he side of the bell rather than the top rear of the bell.

A 1920's "flame job"...