Academy tuba/Monarch Sousaphone

[chowndown]

Does anyone know, by who, or where, the older "Academy" brand tubas were made? Also I have an old BBb sousaphone that says, "Monarch" on it and underneath says, "Conn-Leedy Toronto" Anyone know who made it? It's also missing the bit so I need one. Thanks

[imperialbari]

Welcome!

If you have photos available, it will be much easier to help you.

Photos up to a file size of 256K may be addd as attachments to your postings, max 3 per posting.

Readable shots of the engravings are helpful as are photos showing the layout of the tubing. Certain details like valve caps, ferrules, stays, or receivers also may help identifying instruments.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

Thanks for the photos!

I see some similarities in the ‘penning’ of this engraving and the ones seen on Weltklang (by B&S) instruments. But the bottom bow cap and the 3rd valve wrap don’t match. Exactly these two elements should be the give aways for those having seen instruments from this maker.

Klaus

[Jesse Brook]

The Academy line of instruments was brought over from the 1960s to the 1980s (maybe just 1980) from the Netherlands. The saxes and flutes are especially distinctive by their plainness. The only examples I have come across so far are: trumpet, flute, alto sax, and Eb tuba. They all seem to be student instruments with very little detailing on them. If they're stencils, they're very simple ones. Basic student instruments at best.

[imperialbari]

The Dutch reference is interesting to me, as that would point towards Schenkelaars being the maker.

The Danish and the American instrument acquisition processes after WWII are not the same, but there are similarities. For the Americans it was a matter of keeping costs down and also about getting the wheels running in West Germany again to avoid the errors done after WWI with the terrible reactions in form of a certain corporal’s big following. Hence a scheme like the York Master instruments made by Böhm & Meinl after American designs.

In Denmark export earnings in US$ were limited, so that currency was reserved for the imports of equipment helping the production apparatus getting modernized after WWII. The same more or less went for the UK £. There already before WWII had been fairly close business relations between the Danish maker I. K. Gottfried and Markneukirchen, where IKG bought their rotary valve sections and also had some stencils made. IKG made their last valved instrument in1943, whereafter they ran out of parts and only continued the making of lur copies until around 1983.

When I started playing in 1960 there still were a number of pre-WWII Danish made instruments from Schmidt and IKG. Others were GDR made rotary instruments bought because the East Block countries were eager to earn whatever Western currencies. Piston instruments started entering the amateur market. The Czech Lignatone instruments were made by Amati and were infamous for lasting very short. Dutch Schenkelaars were better made, but their low conical brasses had intonation issues. If British instruments were seen, then very often the Class B lines of Westminster and Regent. Eventually the Class A lines of Imperial and New Standard became affordable. When the Yamaha 3XX and 2XX lines came, they were revelations in better intonation. Sadly they soon developed problems with piston rust and rotting leadpipes. Still the British and Japanese instruments had sent Schenkelaars out of the market.

The coarse engraving style also could be from Schenkelaars. My photo documentation of Schenkelaars BBb tubas is not the best, but I will show the two samples below here.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

Front view.jpg

[chowndown]

I actually also have a BBb 4 valve rotary academy tuba that i noticed Made in Germany on the leadpipe where the mouthpiece goes in. The academy logo on the bell is different than the one in the pic on the tuba above. Is this a good horn? And I have a Lignatone 4 valve BBb rotary too. They're both in playable condition with a few dents. Anyone know what they're worth?

[imperialbari]

Academy is a model name which cannot be copyrighted because it is a word in widespread general usage. The first bass trombone I started playing in 1969 was a Besson Academy.

Klaus