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The album cover posted by Paul shows Jay McAllister with his rotary valve Martin CC. It has a great sound, but the horn serves as a testament to Jay's skills as a player. It has an early "vented valve," a spit valve on the upwardly-extending first valve slide. The valves on the horn are incredibly leaky now--so Jay played it a lot.

Jay sounds pretty good on the album.

Mike

Scroll Down to see a detachable bell Alex Kaiser BBb for sale at Best music;

Looks like the BART in the back row.

http://www.bestmusicco.com/home/index.p ... &Itemid=28" target="_blank

Frank Ortega wrote:Scroll Down to see a detachable bell Alex Kaiser BBb for sale at Best music;

Looks like the BART in the back row.

http://www.bestmusicco.com/home/index.p ... &Itemid=28" target="_blank" target="_blank

Nice. I've not seen one of those. Thanks for posting. Could be the horn in the 'back row'. I'm waiting for LB to get his computer turned on and tuned in so he can start posting here!

Robert, I strongly suspect that the Besson Fred Marzan is holding is the Besson you bought from his estate.

Maybe in Austin, Texas?

bisontuba wrote:Maybe in Austin, Texas?

In which case, again, "the trail ends there."

If it's in Austin, I don't know about it...

Mikelynch wrote:If it's in Austin, I don't know about it...

Then......I don't know

TubaTinker wrote:Does anyone know the whereabouts of the Martin CC that Bill Bell is playing is this picture?

This rotary Martin really looks like a large Martin Eb body with enough extra tubing (loooong leadpipe)d to drop the pitch to CC. The funky valve section looks odd.

James Linn's rotary valve King in the picture has an interesting history. I have the story second hand, Bell told him the King tubas need to have 4 inches taken off the bell, meaning 4 inches off of the diameter. Linn's repairman took 4 inches off of the bell at the tenon. You'll notice in the picture how short the bell appears.

Like I said, second hand.

It has been speculated that the unknown player with the unknown tuba in the far upper right of the photo was playing an Alex 164 kaiser, but I'm not convinced. I think that I can see bell screws, making me think that it is a rare King 1291 large rotary BBb with the upright bell. Only a very few upright bells were made, and they were tall.

Lee Stofer wrote:It has been speculated that the unknown player with the unknown tuba in the far upper right of the photo was playing an Alex 164 kaiser, but I'm not convinced. I think that I can see bell screws, making me think that it is a rare King 1291 large rotary BBb with the upright bell. Only a very few upright bells were made, and they were tall.

Alexander has in the past made removable bell tubas. I have seen one with a front facing bell but have never seen one with an upright bell. Just a thought.

Here's an Alex 163 BBb with a detachable bell. It sold here several years ago.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=42712&hilit=alex+detachable

bort wrote:Here's an Alex 163 BBb with a detachable bell. It sold here several years ago....

Interesting. However... it might be an illusion but the bell stem appears smaller in diameter than the bell stack.

I wouldn't want to bet heavily against Lee's judgement; but FWIW, the back horn sure looks to me to have the contours of an Alex 164 BBb. I used to have one with a detachable upright bell (and I know of one other one). I can send a picture tomorrow of one of the big King BBb's to compare.

Mike

The more that I look at the BART in the upper right-hand corner of the photo, the more I see. There is a very small-radius 1st slide crook, and there is just enough of the lower tubing visible to see that the 3rd slide tubing went to a lower 3rd slide on the front, both consistent with a King 1291 rotor BBb. John Taylor has told me of going on tour with the CSO and Mr. Jacobs as the 2nd tubist, and on tour they met with someone in New York that had one of these horns for sale. Mr. Taylor said it was a marvelous-playing instrument, except that the long upright bell made it a little flat.

Assuming ADULT ownership and gentle handling, maybe it would (have been) a good idea to have installed one or two vertical braces from the female collar with the mouthpipe suspended (via those braces) hovering above the female collar in a more normal position.

I think Bloke is referring to something like this:

I have been using it for about 16 years, as an adult, and recently made some changes to accommodate senior citizenship.

There is a used 4 valve BBb King Rotary on the Baltimore Brass site right now, with an upright bell. I have seen that horn in the store, and I think it is a 1291 with the upright bell. It is, indeed, a very tall, large horn.

Spoke with LB today. Called him to just ask how he was doing and asked him about this. I have no further information that what you all do but it is really nice to be able to call him up and talk. Next week, I'm going up to see and him and Pat for the day and play some duets.