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First, I'm an absolute novice and I expect to be trolled some for asking this question...anyway...

I bought a pretty old Couesnon Eb Tuba for little over $100 that is in pretty incredible shape. It has a .565"/.570" bore and it is a little stuffy. The 1+3 "F" is a reaaaal stinker, too. Also, it sports an unwieldy euro shank receiver. Otherwise, it centers O.K. and the valves and slides are impressively nice for its age.

I've been playing around with some junk parts and have been moderately successful so I think its time to practice my really crappy tuba modification skills on this eepher.

A).So, my first line of business (I think) will be to convert this to a standard (American) shank receiver.
1). Is this possible?
2). What is involved, generally.
B).I also plan to add a fourth valve. I've spoken to some people and I think I can manage to do this.
1). Worth it?
2). Where do I put the damn thing? (Just before the main tuning slide?)
C).The bore on this horn is so very, very small.
1). Should I consider replacing the valve set completely?
2). I think I can score a valve set+tubing from an old Conn Eb sousaphone...would they work?

Thank! You guys are awesome. (Oh, and the 50/50 solid core solder worked nicely).

I've owned several Eb Couesnon tubas and none of them displayed characteristics worthy of adding valves or other modifications. There must have been a million of these things sold to grade schools back in the 50's-70's. These horns just have no 'bottom end' and can't generate much volume no matter how hard you blow.

About the only thing I know about that Couesnon ever made that was worth having is their flugelhorns.

Keep one around for street-corner Christmas caroling but get a bigger horn for anything else.

Haven’t tried that little Couesnon Eb tuba, but it appears being in the same league of very small tubas as the British small Besson/B&H Westminster/Regent/Oxford Eb basses, which made good service for young students and weren’t supposed to do much more.

The British small Eb basses played worse than they should, if one wasn’t aware about their 3rd slide having its length determined by its case, not by the acoustical needs to lower the instrument a minor third. So that slide needs a pull to get that minor third lowering. The same might go with your Couesnon.

Maybe worth a new receiver, but not any major valve work.

Klaus

Short of pulling one off another tuba, I think one the cheapest places to get a receiver would be from JL smith:

http://www.jlsmithco.com/TUBING?range=51%2C69%2C69" target="_blank

(receiver is at the bottom of the page)

If it were me, of course since I make mouthpieces, I'd try a shank that actually fits with an appropriate backbore, before changing the receiver which will only facilitate using inappropriate mouthpieces.

Kanstul will also sell receivers individually. I've purchesed several cornet recievers for converting Olds cornets to a modern size.

Doug Elliott wrote:If it were me, of course since I make mouthpieces, I'd try a shank that actually fits with an appropriate backbore, before changing the receiver which will only facilitate using inappropriate mouthpieces.

+1. Those horns work best with smaller mouthpieces, anyway.

Doug Elliott wrote:If it were me, of course since I make mouthpieces, I'd try a shank that actually fits with an appropriate backbore, before changing the receiver which will only facilitate using inappropriate mouthpieces.

Not to hijack the thread, but what size do you think fits well on these horns. I recently had a Besson 2-20 in my possession and given the smaller shank but larger bore (.689), I had no mouthpiece that fit nicely. I just used my Doug Yeo replica, but it was less than ideal. What would be your first mouthpiece suggestion for a tiny horn?

From my perspective, any size rim you like, on a cup that's not too deep and mostly, a backbore that would be a good match for the cup of the mouthpiece and leadpipe of the horn. A normal tuba mouthpiece's backbore is completely unsuitable for the small leadpipe, so putting a normal receiver on it is not a good solution.

In my mouthpieces I would start with a CB series J or L cup with a shank that fits, maybe either a bass trombone or euphonium shank like J6Euph, J8, J9, or for an L cup an L6Euph, L8, or L9.

I have one of these and use it for a travel tuba. I posted a question about mouthpieces awhile back and got some helpful responses, so you may want to check the archives.

When I was at the Army tuba conference this year, Bloke checked my valve pads and saw that they were about 1/8" too thin. He put in new, thicker pads and the horn played a lot better.

I know this is old as crap (and I think you sold the tuba) but it's so funny that I think I have pretty close to the exact, same tuba.

Did you, in fact, sell it? Did you ever find out anything else about it? Thanks!

The only one I ever played was so craptastic I couldn't even center many pitches when trying to play along with students. An awful horn, but maybe the exception?