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I played with guy tonight who had one and he told me a little about it. Made by the famous French horn maker, it was one of only a few only tubas they ever made. He isn't sure of the manufacture date, but believes it to be from the '20's. Serial number in the 50's. It was pretty much the size and style of my Mirafone I think. An interesting horn. He sounded good on it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kruspe-BBb-tuba ... 2ee705f368" target="_blank

His was re-fitted with mini-ball linkages, presumably from clocksprings?

There is a Kruspe tuba for sale at Baltimore Brass. They have a photograph of the tuba on their website. I played it and I liked it, it had a very nice sound and I liked the response.

this is the description on the Baltimore Brass website:
4V BBb Used Kruspe 4V BBb Tuba. .787"(20mm) bore, 13.5" bell, 38" tall. Clockwork springs and S-linkages. Horn dates from turn of the century. In raw brass, no case. $1,995.00

best,
Mark

How rare are these? Were there many of them made?

scottw wrote:How rare are these? Were there many of them made?

Rare, and not many.

Note, rare doesn't necessarily mean valuable.

Yes.

Matt Walters wrote:Yes.

That's only because you worked on the one I saw!

My gallery has 6 entries for Kruspe tubas and 2 for Kruspe helicons. From 3 RV to 7 RV.

Yes, I own Kilton Vinal Smith's Kruspe F tuba. This instrument was the tuba Mr. Smith used in Boston Symphony up until his retirement around 1965. This particular tuba has 5 valves with the fifth valve in the left hand.

I tooted on an old Kruspe 4rv 4/4 BBb (possibly the one bloke referred to?) years ago and liked it a lot.
It was roughly the same size as a Mira 186 BBb or old M-W 20 BBb. The rotor section was string linkage and held on with J-B Weld.
I found it to play with a dark, sweet sound, easy response, and it seemed to play in-tune. The thin-wall metal of the tuba made it
lightweight for it's size. If I had the money at the time, I probably would have bought it

David Bragunier (RIP) played a Strauss horn concerto on an Eb Kruspe rotary tuba at the Army Conference in 2004, right after his retirement. My report at the time said, "...though it was obvious that he was having to exercise considerable leadership over it, his musicianship 'shown clear'." That tuba, as I recall, dated from right at the turn of the last century.

Rick "liking the heroic opening of that work and never forgetting that performance" Denney