Another "project to be"
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:23 am
Greetings,
I picked up this old H.N. White/King Eb from a fellow on craiglist here in Lincoln (you don't see too many tubas on craigslist around here!) as another project horn. It came with a mouthpiece as well. The mouthpiece is marked "H.N. White Co. 24" and "EQUA TRU." The serial number dates to 1918 according to the King numbers on horn-u-copia (I didn't see a separate numbering system for H.N. White).
It must be a low pitch horn because it's a really flat Eb according to my tuner. I was hoping to use it at a concert later this month, but probably won't have time to trim down the main slide before then, oh well. The valve slides have a groove marked in them, does that mean it might have had a separate tuning slide for high pitch and the marks are to indicate where to have the slides for high vs. low pitch tuning?
It's a bit taller than my little Lyon and Healy Eb, and it actually sits at a nice height on my lap.
My plan with this is to save up and buy a four-valve set (or combine two three-valve sets into a four) and convert it into a small, front action CC tuba. Someone did it with a York Eb and a Reynolds BBb horn in this thread (scroll down a few posts):
viewtopic.php?p=217774#p217774
Anyway, here's a picture of it after a bath (the water was nice and dirty afterwards!). I will try the Tarn-X and baking soda method mentioned here to try and clean up the tarnish, but I don't plan on doing much in the way of repairs until I start the conversion process. I will probably cut the slide to modern pitch at some point, just so I can use it.
Thanks for looking!
I picked up this old H.N. White/King Eb from a fellow on craiglist here in Lincoln (you don't see too many tubas on craigslist around here!) as another project horn. It came with a mouthpiece as well. The mouthpiece is marked "H.N. White Co. 24" and "EQUA TRU." The serial number dates to 1918 according to the King numbers on horn-u-copia (I didn't see a separate numbering system for H.N. White).
It must be a low pitch horn because it's a really flat Eb according to my tuner. I was hoping to use it at a concert later this month, but probably won't have time to trim down the main slide before then, oh well. The valve slides have a groove marked in them, does that mean it might have had a separate tuning slide for high pitch and the marks are to indicate where to have the slides for high vs. low pitch tuning?
It's a bit taller than my little Lyon and Healy Eb, and it actually sits at a nice height on my lap.
My plan with this is to save up and buy a four-valve set (or combine two three-valve sets into a four) and convert it into a small, front action CC tuba. Someone did it with a York Eb and a Reynolds BBb horn in this thread (scroll down a few posts):
viewtopic.php?p=217774#p217774
Anyway, here's a picture of it after a bath (the water was nice and dirty afterwards!). I will try the Tarn-X and baking soda method mentioned here to try and clean up the tarnish, but I don't plan on doing much in the way of repairs until I start the conversion process. I will probably cut the slide to modern pitch at some point, just so I can use it.
Thanks for looking!