Why brass bands should feature compensating BB/Eb tubas

[Jess Haney]

In agreeing with the concept of uniformity Pikes Peak went a different route with the same brand and model of horns for tubas. Since a lot of players in the US gripe about 3+1 we chose matching Willson BBb and Eb. I like 3+1 tubas but we had to keep the entire sections in mind and someone jumping in for contest learning a new horn plus transposing proved difficult even for high level players especially when money was not involved.

[hup_d_dup]

So there's that Besson 983 E-flat thing which has 4 front action compensating valves.
Is there not a B-flat sister to the 983? That might be ergonomically preferable for some folks.

For a few years back in the mid 1990s besson made a front action bb flat tuba..993 was the model number.They only made them for a few years.Extremely rare.Trying to find a picture of one to provide more information.Lots of spare time on my hands.

Here they are, side by side. Aside from the size difference, the designs are quite similar. My understanding is that Pat Sheridan had a hand in the development of both horns. At some point in the future I will shoot another picture against a simpler background so that the tubing can be seen more clearly.

Both horns are wonderful, by the way.

Hup

Besson 983 & 993 - 3.jpg

[eeflattuba]

If I could trade my bb flat Yamaha 632 neo tuba for a besson 993 I would do so in a heartbeat. The sound that comes out of my neo is fantastic,very warm and dark,but there is something about the sound that comes out of a besson tuba that really grabs my attention.

[oedipoes]

For this video I used the Besson for looks, but found it sounded better on the Miraphone Norwegian Star, so that's the one I used for the sound recording... good compromise?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TjldJfBlelI

[Adam C.]

If you want something more recent, but equally as valid, this is our performance from last year's British Open:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SBOU-_R55s

Thanks for sharing this Andy, really beautiful playing!