Roger Bobo's Heisner Tuba?

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Heliconer
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Roger Bobo's Heisner Tuba?

Post by Heliconer »

Hey all,

Was just doing some perusing of Roger's website, and came across a mention of a Heisner CC. He only mentions it in discussion of a new Tuba mute he had made in the 60's. Does anybody know anything about this horn? Any photos?

Thanks!
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Re: Roger Bobo's Heisner Tuba?

Post by tclements »

When I went to UOP (Stockton, CA 1973), Scott Linden had this tuba. It was a silver 4 valve. Although it has been many years, I KIND of remember this tuba having a removable (up) bell. I haven't seen or heard from Scott since that time. I left UOP 1974.
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Re: Roger Bobo's Heisner Tuba?

Post by imperialbari »

Heisner has the structure of a German family name, only it appears being a quite rare name in current Germany. This link leads to a map showing the distribution of people carrying this name:

http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/heisner.html

There are 26 phonebook entries for this name, which apparently by statistics leads to the assumption that there are 104 peopele carrying it. None of these people appear living in the area around Markneukirchen. Very few in Bavaria, where the bulk of German brass makers from Northern Bavaria moved to in the aftermath of WWII.

The combination of a German name and a detachable bell strongly points towards a German tuba made for the American market. Maybe a limitation of my memory, but I only remember 3 well known German makers making tubas with detachable bells:

Meinl-Weston, Miraphone/Mirafone, and Böhm & Meinl. One common denominator for these is about Bohemian refugees settling in Bavaria after WWII.

Whether it is a craftsman from one of these companies acting independently during their upstart is pure guesswork. It also could be an internal stencil name used to circumvent contracts on exclusive wholesale dealerships much like B&S used the name Schneider when some dealings weren’t entirely kosher.

Precision only could only be provided by Mr. Bobo. More leads might be drawn from good photos of the given tuba, if it still exists.

Klaus
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Re: Roger Bobo's Heisner Tuba?

Post by Norm Pearson »

From Facebook, assuming this is it
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Re: Roger Bobo's Heisner Tuba?

Post by imperialbari »

Thanks for the photo!

I cannot tell anything specific from these not so sharp contours. Yet I find the stays of the main tuning slide pointing towards an older design. And the collar assembly for the detachable bell doestn’t necessarily look original.

That would allow for this being a pre-WWII import being modified in the USA. That opens the area from where it could come to more than present day Germany. Especially to the Sudeten area of Northern Bohemia, but also to Austria. Googling ’Heisner tuba’ more or less spirals back to this tuba, so awareness about a Heisner maker would take specific knowledege or access to a book with references to him.

Somebody with a relation to Mr. Bobo might try asking him.

Klaus
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