TubeNet

My Yahoo-based gallery has two de Prins BBb tubas 4FP represented. There is at least one photo of a reasonably high resolution that might be helpful to you. Go by the Index.

Klaus

AFAIK, these were stencils from Eastern Europe...probably some discussion in the archives...I think most of the stencils were BBbs. You might find some rubber tubing at the local hardware or Home Depot, etc., which could be attached to the horn with clamps (gently!) if you must play it before proceeding to determine the key.

I don't see where it really matters whether it's BBb or CC...you still have to measure the ID of the tubing and the distance between the two legs and figure out a way to build (or buy) a replacement. As long as you build the legs a bit longer than the average tuning slide, you should be able to get on pitch, whatever that turns out to be...finding the ID will allow you to figure out which horns have slides which might fit. It also isn't impossible to just buy the correct tubing sizes and fill it with pitch or the correct pot metal and bend to suit, although it's beyond my pay grade...maybe some of the resident repair gurus can chime in. Surely one or another of them has seen one of these.

Good luck...a lot of these stencils are pleasant surprises.

Uh, sorry, I just checked the archives under "DePrins." Not a stencil, although imported by Walter Sears. A small factory in Belgium. Lots of posts in the archives to look at. Yes, mostly or all BBb's, according to comments there.

Just a thought before you spend money repairing this tuba. The reason you can't find much about these tubas is because they are not well known. There is a reason nobody wants them.

lost wrote:

pjv wrote:Just a thought before you spend money repairing this tuba. The reason you can't find much about these tubas is because they are not well known. There is a reason nobody wants them.

Our school has tubas nobody wants and we repair them. Sometimes money is an issue.

Agree! Money is often an issue and going an buying something new isn't an option.

No sane repairman would attempt making a replica tuning slide alone on your measurements. He would want the tuba in his workshop as well for the initial measuring as for the final adjustment and alignment.

Tell the band director that if the tuba doesn’t leave the school, then he can forget everything about the tuba being restored to playing order.

Klaus

I played one of these for a while in college while I waited for my own horn I purchased to arrive. It was a pretty good horn so it may be worth fixing it it is in decent shape.
ScottM

DePrins tubas were made in Belgium to Walter Sear's design specs. Most were nickel plated, and most sold to schools were BBb. The bore is metric, roughly .660" although these horns play big for their bore size. The valves are stainless steel.

DePrins sold most of their instruments to musicians in their former colonies - as in "Belgian Congo". Every one of these horns is "hand built" since DePrins never got around to to things like hydraulic expansion of tubing, etc. They are pretty tough little horns.

Ray Noguera at Laconia Music in New Hyde Park NY is your go-to guy on this. He used to work for Walter and has some NOS DePrins parts on hand.

In the 1960s these horns listed for $550 with a canvas carry case!

Mark Heter

The valves were not stainless steel. They were nickel-plated brass.
They were very good tubas, but Walter insisted on a very awkward leadpipe and mpc receiver design. They also tended to be rather high-pitched. Eventually he made a longer tuning slide available. I lengthened the 4th valve slide on mine (using tubing from a junk Eb tuba) so i could get low C and B in tune. The one in the photo is an early one. By 1963 he had re-arranged the 3rd valve tubing to a more conventional shape.

I have worked with the school.
I have offered many times over the years to replace the slide.
I have 4 of these horns , They have stainless steel valves, The main slide is tapered
. I need the horn in my shop.
I admire your creative talents .
Come and visit me and play one
Ray