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I picked this little horn up last week. I've never seen one with all three pieces and the cases in this good a condition. I bought it thinking my young grandson might get tired of his euphonium lessons and decide to give tuba a try. These little BBb tubas were made by Willson and marketed by DEG as the Caravelle 'commuter tuba'. The body has a case about the size of an airline carry-on. The bells have cases that resemble small snare drum cases. The original concept was for the student to leave the brass bell at school and have the plastic bell at home for practice. All the student had to 'lug' was the small body case.

Very nice! I'd read about these before, but this is the first I've seen that wasn't shaped more like a pretzel than a horn. Just curious, as I'm having a bit of trouble scaling it with nothing to compare to in the pictures-- how small is the horn? Perhaps more importantly, how does the little sucker play?

emcallaway wrote:Very nice! I'd read about these before, but this is the first I've seen that wasn't shaped more like a pretzel than a horn. Just curious, as I'm having a bit of trouble scaling it with nothing to compare to in the pictures-- how small is the horn? Perhaps more importantly, how does the little sucker play?

The 'Caravelle' is very close in size to my Mirafone 180 F except it's main bugle is quite a bit smaller. The overall height is 34" and the bell diameter is 15". It's shown pictured here between a Marzan (B & M) BBb and a Mirafone 180.

I'm not a fan of little horns because most of them are difficult to get a big sound out of. This one's no different. It plays OK... maybe a little on the flat side (it's cold in my practice room). The pitch is probably manageable with a smaller MP than the PT-48X that I normally use. The bore is .631" and it takes a regular-shank mouthpiece. Funny... the original mouthpiece looks identical to the Marzan mouthpieces but the cup has a slightly smaller diameter.

I played one of these in high school two years in the marching tuba configuration, before a lot of better marching tuba alternatives were available. Sound is not that bad with the brass bell. Fiberglass bell, fuggedaboutit. A funnel mouthpiece that is not too big, like a Conn 2, seems to work well on these.

MartyNeilan wrote:I played one of these in high school two years in the marching tuba configuration....

There were several varieties of these horns:

848 - Detachable bells... one brass & one plastic with both the marching and concert leadpipes.
848-1 - Fixed upright bell with both marching and concert leadpipes.
850 - Fixed upright bell with fixed concert leadpipe only.
840 - The 'commuter tuba' two detachable bells (one plastic and one brass) and fixed concert leadpipe.

I have a .pdf of the catalog pages if anyone wants it.

You're correct... the horn plays very 'dead' with the plastic bell. On my horn, the bell is a poor fit to the body with only the three flange screws touching the bell. The tenon on the bell needs to be bushed up about 1/16" for a good fit.

TubaTinker wrote: On my horn, the bell is a poor fit to the body with only the three flange screws touching the bell. The tenon on the bell needs to be bushed up about 1/16" for a good fit.

I used to have a problem with the metal bell falling off. I solved that by drilling one hole in the bell tenon. Two of the bell screws would apply pressure, but one would go all the way through the tenon, preventing it from popping off. Maybe not the best solution, but one that kept a highschool kid from losing his bell on the field.

bloke wrote:I picked up the body (only) to one of these quite a while back. I stuck a (one-piece, obviously) Holton 14" Eb bell section in a case with it. Someday, I might make it into a cute little (non-detachable / Willson-Holton) 3/4 size BBb.

Funny you mentioned Holton bell. I had an old Eb Holton top-action that ended up as a fountain in the fish pond. Two years later... I ran across a body-only Caravelle. I dug the Holton out of the fish pond and put the bell on the Caravelle.

One of my students had one of these in fairly good condition. It only had the brass bell. When I saw Carvelle on the bell, I was expecting it to play VERY poorly. I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be quite a nice little tuba. It is not for a serious student. But, for a person who wants to play in a community group for enjoyment, I found it quite good.