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Does it say "Buescher" anywhere on it aside from the bell? Could be a Conn with a Buescher sousaphone bell stuck on.

To my knowldege, they were never business partners together, but a Conn-manufactured-stenciled-Buescher wouldn't be a great surprise (at one time, Buescher supplied saxophones to many other companies for stenciling).

The ferrules look like Conn, as does the layout.

However....

IF it were a Buescher, the braces would look like a "tulip" style design (similar to earlier Yorks) but with a longer "diamond" style foot and a 1/4" rod (York used 7/32") - it's hard to see what's on it from the resolution of your photo.

bloke wrote:Buescher recording bell on Conn body

Seems right.

A high-resolution photo of the engraving would be interesting to see....

That's a great find! Thanks for the picture too -

lost wrote:Serial puts it around 1942.

Musical instrument manufacturing was substantially shut down in the middle of 1942. Conn and Buescher both went to work making altimeters. If they made tubas, they'd presumably be for military use, with "US" or "USN" on them. Maybe this tuba was produced a little before that era, but there may have been a transitional period, before or after, where unusual deals were made.

Stop the Music! Band Instrument Manufacturing During World War II

My understanding is that Gus Buescher was in-and-out-of business several times, and I've heard it said that he was a great instrument maker, but not a great businessman. There were, and are more secret liasons between manufacturers than we'll ever know about, but I think it is safe to say that Conn and Buescher did plenty of business together before WWII.

It is really neat to get to see a rather rare tuba like this. My undergrad instructor told me that his Dad paid a ton of money during WWII to buy him a new tuba - a 4-front-piston Buescher - and $400.00 was a ton of money then. Dr. Campbell said that he regretted ever selling that instrument, but as a poor young college instructor with a family, he sold it one summer.

With proper repairs, that can be a fabulous player.

IIRC, Conn executive Carl Greenleaf also owned controlling interest in Buescher. I find it interesting that two of these horns are from 1942, just as wartime production was ramping up. They do not seem to use the short action valves that came out in the '30s so I wonder if they had a few full stroke versions left over and decided to sell them as Bueschers. Perhaps there was an advantage in labeling them Buescher to get around quota limits in civilian sales.

Just ideas but perhaps someone out there has "rest of the story....."

There is one difference I can see.

If you look at the top part of The Buescher the tubing coming out of the tuning slide and the 4th valve tubing run very close together. On the 36J the two tubes run a bit differently and are farther apart.

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