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Hi all,

My son and I had the rare privilege of seeing - and playing - the fully-restored Harvard tuba out at Dillon Music this morning. Matt Walters and his team did a fantastic job! Below is a before and after shot, with Steve Dillon and myself.

For a few more photos, click here: https://tubapastor.blogspot.com/2019/06 ... -tuba.html.

Also, if you're curious, this giant tuba weighs just under 88 pounds and stands 6 feet 11 inches tall. And the bell diameter is just under 32 inches. But at that height, I believe it is now officially the world's largest fully-functional tuba that can be played by one person ("Big Carl" is bigger, but its valves are dummies, so it's just a giant bugle; the Bohland & Fuchs giant in Kraslice requires two people to play it - one on the mouthpiece, and one working the rotary valves; and the Markneukirchen Riesentuba, built in 2010, is only 6 feet 9 inches tall!). How cool is that?!

More to come with a series of articles in The Brass Herald.

Enjoy!
Dave

When not in use, it should be kept in its case.

Dave, what mouthpiece did they assign to this horn? What are the specs?

Ace

Ace wrote:Dave, what mouthpiece did they assign to this horn? What are the specs?

Ace

The original mouthpiece was lost or stolen years ago. And those who have played the horn in concert over the years, such as Sam Pilafian, Chester Schmitz, and Gary Ofenloch, have used a standard tuba mouthpiece.

But Vladimir, at Dillon Music, made a proportionally-correct mouthpiece for this giant - just for fun - and you can see a photo of it in my blog link in the original post above.

And as to the specs, do you mean of the mouthpiece Vladimir made? I'll have to ask about that! But the basic info on the tuba itself is above.

Most of us here are probably thinking "how could I add a 4th valve ?"

Maybe Wessex can make some copies of it. Silverplated...

Interesting and great restoration. I appreciate that they shared the progress on their facebook page.

bloke wrote:

aqualung wrote:Most of us here are probably thinking "how could I...

TNFJ wrote:...cut it to CCC...??

Well wait a second here. Have we at long last found the perfect horn for Bydlo?

There is a short clip of it being played in the link. It's down the page.

That is one big hunk of brass. It must have taken the entire crew of techs to get it up to the buffer to put that shine on- even with the bell and stack disconnected. Wonder how many pounds of solder and gallons of flux it took to get it back together?

timayer wrote:

bloke wrote:

aqualung wrote:Most of us here are probably thinking "how could I...

TNFJ wrote:...cut it to CCC...??

Well wait a second here. Have we at long last found the perfect horn for Bydlo?

You owe me a new computer!!!

#spittake!

J.c.S.

You guys are a trip

bloke wrote:Rather than the Jb knock-off, I'm waiting for the plastic version.

That's 2.

I've been following the progress on Facebook, and it's just amazing. It took the entire repair staff to work on it, due to the size. They also worked with Ferree's tools to make some custom pieces just for the tuba. So many of the usual tools for brass instruments simply will not work on one of that size.

I wonder if the tuba will be used in concert any time soon, for special purposes.