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Interesting British inspired Holton BBb
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:04 am
by imperialbari
Re: Interesting British inspired Holton BBb
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:11 pm
by Jess Haney
thats old school. Seen a lot of early Bessons like that.
Re: Interesting British inspired Holton BBb
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:24 pm
by Lee Stofer
Yes, one of the Holt-amaha tubas, the earliest student Yamaha tuba to be marketed in the US.
Based upon a British design of 100+ years ago, they are not a bad player for what they are. If bidding upon one, beware that they are so old in Yamaha's eyes that they no longer have parts numbers or parts for them. So, if one is missing a few parts, you might have just bought a wall-hanging.
Re: Interesting British inspired Holton BBb
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:43 pm
by imperialbari
Glad you posted this, Lee.
Honestly, I thought there was a mismatch of photos and the object presented for sale (which actually happens in between). And then I would have let others tell the error.
I have a 3+1 Besson Eb from 1870, obviously without the Blaikley compensating system. It also has the 3 main valve slides on the rear, yet without the 3rd loop acting as hand rest. Feels odd.
I have a strong visual impression of the old British BBb tubas with their huge vertical branches dating back from 1961. The Vauxhall car works had sponsored at tour for their local Luton Salvation Army band, where many of their workers played. The band was very much bigger than the standard 25 pieces. The leftmost BBb tuba was of that design and left a much stronger impression on a then somewhat younger me than did the more modern BBb tubas also being there.
Klaus