TubeNet

The way I hold mine, the ball digs into my leg. These tubas aren't the bastion of ergonomics, especially for a short guy like me (5'7"). I'd also be interested in any info.

That ball was originally designed to snap into a 'half-cover' for marching. Just unsolder it and pass it along to the next owner if they want it.

Like Bloke says is good. If you have a Dremel or other rotary tool you can make a nice job of it. I doubt you would decrease the resale value as most people would be happier without that emasculator anyway. Cutting is tidier than unsoldering.

It was the very first thing I had done to the Boosey&Hawkes BBb tuba when I started playing it. The technician I use did an excellent job of removing it and I simply put it in the trunk the tuba came in from England. It will be available when the next player takes over! I use a drum stand for the horn and it sits very comfortably on top of it. A terrific tuba as well!

Some call that ball "The Emasculator". That it was put there to fasten a half cover makes sense. I always figured it was just another one of those strange British things.

It was actually to fit onto a carry strap.

Hacksaw - file is fine. The ball also chews up the foam on tuba playing stands. keep it if you think it looks cool, or maybe if you want to set the bottom bow down on concrete all the time.

Ken Herrick wrote:It was actually to fit onto a carry strap.

I suppose it might be used for such, but have never seen such strap. I thought was just to protect bottom bow when tuba put down at rest on march. Did not old German tubas have an even more lethal cutter on bottom for similar purpose?

Wyvern wrote:

Ken Herrick wrote:It was actually to fit onto a carry strap.

I suppose it might be used for such, but have never seen such strap. I thought was just to protect bottom bow when tuba put down at rest on march. Did not old German tubas have an even more lethal cutter on bottom for similar purpose?

It's been a long time, but I've seen them on the march in a carry strap. I always admire the tenacity of the Brits marching with those big ole Boosey/Besson BBb's. Makes hauling a sousaphone down the street feel like a piece of cake.

Cutting off the ball was the first thing I did with my Besson Ball Buster. Huge improvement and I believe makes your instrument more and not less valuable to a future owner. Get past the not currently in vogue apect of these horns - these can be great instruments when the valves are in good shape and properly aligned. While not one of my main axes I still can't part with it after 35 years.

Like the British compensator or not, in theory the Blakley compensated system provides the best intonation for a tuba.

Most British military bands don't use the BBb bass on the match any more due to Health and Safety concerns. The majority of tubas used on the march are Eb.

As I have heard it, the story behind the Besson/Boosey & Hawkes ball was about a secure seating of the tuba in mounted playing.

Where Western saddles have a horn to secure a rope, the saddles for tubists of the British mounted bands had a small shallow cup with a hole in the center fitting the ball of the tuba.

When I played BBb tuba on a band owned Besson Imperial from the transition years between the old Besson New Standard plus B&H Imperial tubas and the new Sovereign tubas, it was followed by a playing stand, which had a small metal supporting cup, 2" x 3", with a center hole for the ball.

When I bought my own K&M playing stands for standing and for seated playing around 2000, the padded support areas were way bigger, but they also had a center hole. Maybe rather a slit allowing for a sideways tilted position of the tuba.

The Besson tuba ball is a quite old phenomenon. At least my 1870 Besson 3+1 non-compensating Eb tuba has an original ball on the bottom bow.

Klaus

To me, the most painful of these attachments, (balls, keels, combs, whatever you'd like to call them) were on the old Bueschers. I had an Eb with a "thing" on the bottom that could cut like a knife. I've even seen it on some Buescher sousaphones from the 20s.

58mark wrote:Look at the meat slicer on this thing...

Save money, Do it yourself orchiectomies at home. I know more than one player has been brought to grief from these protrusions. I'm with everyone else. Cut the ball off before you squash one of yours.

Funny, I had a customer today bemoaning that these balls are no longer fitted on tubas with his theory being that sitting ball on chair, or stand, the tuba better reverberates.

He asking if Wessex could resurrect the ball. Somehow I don't think so!

I played a Willson BBb for quite some time that had a ball on the bottom, never had any problems with it to be honest. I did always rest the tuba on the chair so that helped I guess :p
I also marched a lot with it, a good harnass helps, never saw one that attached to the ball

I think I remember being told that the ball is hard soldered to the small plate, so things tend to get overheated and fall apart if you try to unsolder it without first taking the bow guard off of the instrument. I have only seen two or three instruments with missing balls, and people seem to have hacksawed the ball and ground down the stump.

I can confirm that in the first band I ever played in (in England, a few decades ago) we had stands for the tubas, that just had a cup at the top of the stand for the ball to sit in (imagine a cornet mouthpiece soldered to the top of a cut-down music stand). Can't say I remember actually using them, but they were there in the bandroom.

Somewhere around there is a picture of an Imperial/New Standard/ Sovereign E-flat with a peg-type stand attached to it that lets you support it on your chair - the picture illustrates a posting about the Fletcher cut, so you can probably turn it up with the search feature (sorry, can't do that myself, got to leave).

Only a monster of the tuba like you, Joe!

58mark wrote:Look at the meat slicer on this thing...

That looks like that oddball Cazzani (or something like that) that Chuck Guzis used to talk about. And I'm pretty sure that is the rug in Chuck's living room. It wasn't that large but the bore was monstrous. I expect the sound to be a bit brittle, too, with that "flare".

As to the question, I had a Bb Besson Stratford in the deeps of time, and I simply had the flange holding the ball unsoldered. Took the technician about 15 seconds. I intended to keep it with the instrument, but I trade that instrument decades ago and I think I still have that ball and its flange around here somewhere. On mine, the flange was several inches long and was soldered onto the bottom bow guard, and removing it had no effect. It could easily be reinstalled if sold to someone who has not yet learned about the effects of the Unmanning Device.

Rick "memories" Denney

I would not recomment removing the flange which has 3 purposes:

Obviously holding the ball.

Quite as obviously strengthening the outher perimeter of the bottom bow, where the metal has been stretched the most and hence where it is thinnest.

The maybe less obvious purpose of acting as an acoustic stiffening agent and damper-by-weight.

While I waited 3 spring months of 1999 between the ordering and the delivery of my British made Sovereign 981 Eb 3+1P comper, the seller loaned me the non-comping 7XX-version of the same instrument, which had the exactly same main bugle tubing (maybe except for the leadpipe).

Where the 981 has an even response, the 7XX was much more temperamental with some notes, especially top of the stave Ab, popping out much louder than the surrounding notes when playing scale type figures. To my eyes and ears that was caused by the lighter bottom bow guards and by the lesser amound of guard wire on the top bow (as compared to the 981).

Klaus

I have recently been increasing the size of bow guards and ribbing on Wessex tubas and euphonium not just to reduce susceptibility to dents, but also to improve playing response. I don't know the science why, but it does seem to have a beneficial effect.