TubeNet

What's the scoop on a Karl Zeiss - stenciled tuba? BBb, four rotaries, wrap looks like a Cerveny 681 or a Mira 186. It's heavier than the Cerv. . .has nickel silver slides, etc.. Valve paddles and linkage look like 1960s and they're noisy (clacking), but the horn really sounds great.

It was either made by Cerveny or B&S. Post a picture and someone will be able to tell you for sure.

I'm mildly curious to learn something from this thread. One of these was my workhorse in high school. I made the Kentucky all-state band three years running (80-82) with one of these, as well as the opportunity to play under William Revelli at the Morehead band clinic. It served me well and I have fond memories of it.

The first tuba I owned was a Karl Ziess. It was of the Cerveny design, because it was made by Cerveny/Amati. These horns however varied greatly over the years. The one I had/(have again) had the 4th valve wrap of a Cerveny Piggy. It was made in late '69 or early '70. Later versions of these horns were wrapped very much like the current Cerveny 681. The low register on my '70 version was much more open than the 681 model. If your Ziess looked like a Alex/B&S, then it was probably made by B&S. These horns did play very well and I paid $550 new for mine in the Summer of 1970!! Oh, the good ole days!

Richard Murrow

Did Zeiss ever have a factory, or were they exclusively a stencil horn company?

Karl Ziess was imported, mostly, by DeKalb Music outside of Atlanta. After Walter Sear, it was one of the most successful stencil jobs ever done. I am also mostly positive that Cerveny did all of the assembly.

The day I bought my tuba, the 2 horns I spent the most time on was a Marzan and a Karl Ziess. If it wasn't for the sticking valve on the Ziess, I would have bought it instead.

So, who is the maker of this Ziess:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 6805802641

P.S. I have no association with the seller and I do not endorse his user name.

I had one from 1969-1976... and really liked it. The horn took me through high school, college and my first year studying after college. I replaced it with an HB-2. Real shock going to the Hirsbrunner.

I never could get the clock spring valves to work really quickly though. I had them serviced a few times but finally resorted to aiding them with rubber bands!

Ken S.

I've had several of these pass through my shop, and each one I made go to a good home, while secretly wishing it was coming home with me. Wonderful, wonderful sound, well built except for the VERY terrible clockwork machinery (I like clockwork levers mostly, but the Ziess' were just TOO cheap). That's not too terrible to fix, though (see Tuba Tinker's site).

If you can find them cheap (like this one was, HOLY %$@#!!), nab one. Even if you throw a few hundred bucks into dents and valve levers, you will have a bullet-proof warhorse always there for you, and utterly playable and an instrument your pears will enjoy hearing.

One caution - the 4th valve tubing (on the 186 wrapped beasts) is ALWAYS too short... at least on every one I've tried.

J.c.S.

the elephant wrote:No one seems to be noticing the subtle corrections, so I will just say it. It is Ziess and not Zeiss.

Holy crap, I totally missed that. Not really a household name, but I've been saying this wrong (out loud and in my head) for the better part of 15 years now.

the elephant wrote:I had never noticed that it was "ie" and not "ei". The name Zeiss is a famous one.

This may have been a good thing. Most English-speakers, and Americans in particular, have a tendency to pronounce a German "ie" as if it were a "ei" and vice versa.