Intonation on old Besson compensating BBb-tuba

[jma78]

So, I have a quite talented 17 year old tuba student who plays on a (I would guess from the 1970’s) Besson BBb-tuba. The tuba has a small receiver and the student is using a Denis Wick 3 mouthpiece.

It seems like the 4th, 5th and 6th partials are relatively flatter than 2nd and 3rd partials. This causes the student to either miss the note or changing the color quite much when going from F bottom of staff to G. (Meaning that the student has good ears when wanting to play ”in tune”)

Are there any tricks to diminish this? Would a different mouthpiece make this intonation issue smaller?

Suggestions welcome.

Thanks!

[jperry1466]

So, I have a quite talented 17 year old tuba student who plays on a (I would guess from the 1970’s) Besson BBb-tuba. The tuba has a small receiver and the student is using a Denis Wick 3 mouthpiece.

It seems like the 4th, 5th and 6th partials are relatively flatter than 2nd and 3rd partials. This causes the student to either miss the note or changing the color quite much when going from F bottom of staff to G. (Meaning that the student has good ears when wanting to play ”in tune”) Are there any tricks to diminish this? Would a different mouthpiece make this intonation issue smaller?

I played one of those in high school in the late 1960s. The receiver was smaller than an American horn and took a Besson mouthpiece with the smaller shank (mine said "Made in England"). Sometimes they pop up on ebay but not often. Supposedly the European Small Shank (sometimes referred to as an Eb Tuba shank) is the way to go. Here is an article with some suggestions that might be helpful:
https://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/ ... uthpieces/

There are some Schilke mouthpieces that can be ordered with the small European shank, too. Some people have claimed to have good results by replacing the receiver with a standard one, but that might require also replacing the leadpipe. Good luck!

[tofu]

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[royjohn]

I had a New Standard BBb, I think from around that period (70's) several years ago. I thought it was an air hog, and rather dark and without much edge, so I sold it. Of course, I'm not much of a tuba player, so my assessment could be wrong. I did do some fairly extensive intonation tests and they always came out pretty much spot on, as others have said. I used a Wick 1L with it...it did have the small receiver, but I bought it from ebay and had it sent directly to a repairman in New England (I forget exactly who) and he had some professional players from Amherst play it with the small receiver and with the larger (American) receiver before changing it over. As I recall he said that they couldn't tell any difference and that it played well in tune with either receiver. I kind of miss it sometimes, but I have a Conn 20J and a Karl Ziess Miraclone now and these suit me pretty well...
royjohn