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I know Mr. Phillips was no equipment geek and understand he only had one tuba, the one the Conn 2J was more or less based on. In a picture or two I've seen of him playing it, he seems to have a mouthpiece with a Conn funnel shaped exterior like the Conn 2. Does anyone know what model it was?

lost wrote:could it be a Conn #2 mouthpiece?

Certainly it could be. Was it?

It's my understanding that after playing on more "custom" mouthpieces Harvey went to the Conn 2 because if he lost or forgot or damaged his mouthpiece he could go to any school and borrow one. And he surely did make that mouthpiece work. After his original Conn tuba got trashed and never quite came back he had 2 and 3J's scattered around his house. The original Conn was purchased from Abe Torchinsky at the suggestion of Bill Bell. I got to sit next to him and that Conn in a tuba(no euphoniums) sextet and then hear him play Carioca and sit in with the concert band at Princeton around 1972. The guy really had it all. Beautiful sound and perfect articulation in all registers and in the band he sounded like a studio recording his sound was so balanced. And when he cranked it up it was amazing to me that he could get such a full big sound on what seemed to be a small horn. may he rest in peace. Ed

EdFirth wrote:It's my understanding that after playing on more "custom" mouthpieces Harvey went to the Conn 2 because if he lost or forgot or damaged his mouthpiece he could go to any school and borrow one. And he surely did make that mouthpiece work. After his original Conn tuba got trashed and never quite came back he had 2 and 3J's scattered around his house. The original Conn was purchased from Abe Torchinsky at the suggestion of Bill Bell. I got to sit next to him and that Conn in a tuba(no euphoniums) sextet and then hear him play Carioca and sit in with the concert band at Princeton around 1972. The guy really had it all. Beautiful sound and perfect articulation in all registers and in the band he sounded like a studio recording his sound was so balanced. And when he cranked it up it was amazing to me that he could get such a full big sound on what seemed to be a small horn. may he rest in peace. Ed

Great memories! And thank you for the information.

Harvey told me that he once had a custom-made bakelite mouthpiece in his jacket pocket. While putting on the jacket before a concert he swung it around, hit something, and broke the mouthpiece. After that he stuck with the Conn because he could borrow one from any school if necessary.

He told me that story after trying one of my early crude attempts at a plastic mouthpiece with a wrap-around rim. He played it up and down a few octaves, rotated it 90 degrees, and played the same licks again.

This is just a side note on those Holton"Harvey Model" horns.The Conn 3J's had gone out of production so the only horn in that size range was the Yamaha like Chuck Dallenbach played on. Harvey helped develop the model and, since it bore his name allowed advertisements of him endorsing and using them. He probably had one... but he played Conns. The guy was just more about the music than the metal. In my junior high school chorus room there was a picture of him holding a C Bill Bell King. It stuck with me as the only tuba player picture I had ever seen. It was borrowed for the photo op. Ed

The first lesson I had with Harvey was in January, 1979. I had just enrolled as a master's student at Indiana University. He met me at his studio. As we got set up for the lesson, he noticed his mouthpiece was missing. He asked if I would retrace his steps to the car and see if perhaps he had dropped it along the way. Sure enough I found it in the grass not far from where his car was parked. When I returned to the studio with the mouthpiece I asked him..... why do you play on a Conn 2? His response was simple.... "because that is the mouthpiece that came with the horn." Harvey was fanatical about some things.... but not mouthpieces.

It was a Conn 2. Harvey told me that he was playing on a custom Bakelite mouthpiece, and was soloing with a high-school band. He was in the men's room and dropped the Bakelite mpc, which broke into a hundred pieces. He grabbed something from the band room and used that. He said, "I use a Conn 2 because it is an easily replaced mouthpiece>" Not bad advice.

John M. Taylor

Enjoyed this thread. I have a Conn 2 I've been carrying around for years (high school, Army?). My progression has been Conn 2, Bach 18, Conn Helleberg, Laskey 30H. I'll put the Conn 2 on for a couple of days, and see how it works.

Thanks.

Hey! I like it (the long-neglected Conn 2)

Around the time I originally posted this thread I bought a 2J from one source and an uncommonly pristine 2 mouthpiece from another. I've spent very little time with the 2J. It has been off getting a 5th valve and some other work (valves, bracing, etc.) done for much of the time I've owned it. But I've used that 2 mouthpiece quite a bit in the meantime. Haven't performed with it yet, but it definitely gets the job done in the practice room.

Yes, Harvey Phillips played a Conn 2 mouthpiece.

His CC Conn tuba was made in the 1920s. He never mentioned a model number for it. I believe it was lacquered, raw brass, and then silver plated.

It was found in a NYC pawn shop and I seem to recall him saying he paid $200 for it. Bill Bell had told him he needed a CC tuba. He also had a bell front Martin BBb tuba he sometimes used on recordings. It is the tuba Bill Bell is holding on the cover of his solo album that Harvey produced.

He actually had three of the Conn CCs that he either found or were given to him by others. He used them to swap out parts to keep his original one playing, although the other two remained in good playing condition as his sons Jesse and Harvey Jr both played one. Thomas played euphonium.

The design and craftsmanship of his tuba was quite elegant. It is as unique as it's owner was. One of a kind...

At the first tuba conference in 1973 Abe Torchinsky said that Bell asked him to sell that Conn to Harvey. I was there and heard him say it. I don't think he was making it up as so many on here do.Ed

I know Harvey didn't find it, so obviously Abe Torchinsky did and sold it to Harvey.

Thanks!

EdFirth wrote:At the first tuba conference in 1973 Abe Torchinsky said that Bell asked him to sell that Conn to Harvey. I was there and heard him say it. I don't think he was making it up as so many on here do.Ed

In a lesson, Mr. Torchinsky told me that he sold the Conn to Mr. Phillips per a suggestion by Bill Bell. Though, Mr. Torchinsky was playing in the Philadelphia Orchestra, he said that he could only afford to own one tuba (the pay was not very good then). Mr. Phillips and Mr. Torchinsky met at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and Mr. Phillips test-blew the Conn. Mr. Torchinsky said that Mr. Phillips was ripping all over the Conn with his superb finger technique and playing the tuba like no one had heard before. Mr. Tochinsky said that if Mr. Ormandy had walked by and heard such tuba playing, Mr. Ormandy would have fired Mr. Torchinsky and hired Mr. Phillips. So, the test of the Conn did not last long.