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I've been offered to buy this Melton Spezial CC Tuba.
The seller can't find a serial number or anything to identify the model except from "Melton Spezial".
Before I drive to pick it up for test playing I would like to know about the model, the size, the age and so on.
Can somebody maybe recognize it?
I'm aware of the defective 4th valve

Looks like a MW Bill Bell model?

Melton/Meinl Weston "Bill Bell" model 37.

I owned one of these when in grad school in 1969 - bought it right from Getzen in Elkhart, WI. Albeit it was engraved "W. Meinl Weston a Division of Getzen."

By comparision to the 1940 King CC which it references (and which I was eventually able to buy in 1975), it has the problematic G at the bottom of the staff which was unusably flat. (1 & 3 was the alternative) It was also rather stuffy and stiff compared to its predecesor. The 5th valve slide with the optional crook added unecessary weight to the horn.

Now, that description fit mine, but some of the others were great horns. Pretty open, big sound and flexible and sweet.
One of them, with only 4 valves and a one piece bell, was really superb and had slighly better intonation. But from what I understand, the flat G has to do with the taper of the bugle at or around the 2nd branch. (Not something that a change in mouthpiece would improve.)

I'm hoping the one you are planning on is one of the better ones. I really do not know whether or not MW had addressed the flat 3rd partial over the past 4 decades. By looking at the uni-ball linkage, one might surmise that this is a newer version.

Best wishes, and good luck with it.

What size is it?
A 4/4?

I would categorize it as maybe a 7/8. The bore is a bit small.

I've tried a few, and thought they were pretty comparable to a Miraphone 186, except the MW doesn't break up as easily. Small bore didn't seem like a huge deal to me.

I had a chance to play the version for sale over here recently. It was bigger than I remembered (I studied with Paul when he had his) and sounded good. I didn't "click" with it though. My F tuba is Melton Spezial (a 182 model) and I didn't notice the brass being different (yellow as far as I can tell).

As for Spezial:

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