Rare Besson Baritone

[Highams]

Just added to my collection, a 1917 Besson 3v Enharmonic Baritone.

http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k309/ ... uphoniums/

You can see the two sets of 1st. & 2nd. valve tuning slides, front & back, the 3rd. is shared and is the master valve.

When using valves 1 & 2, the shorter back pair of slides are used, when these are used with the 3rd. it switches the direction to the longer front set.

Both the Besson Enharmonic and the Boosey Compensating systems were available across the whole range of brass band instruments, except Soprano cornet.

CB

[iiipopes]

Nice. It's too bad that with the weight, the extra tubing even necessary even more than the "standard" Blaikley system developed for B&H, and the extra effort to effectively make two valve blocks in one, that this way of doing things died.

Tell me -- since you're just redirecting the air through the 3rd valve and not bringing everything back through the block, is it less stuffy than a "conventional" comp?

[Highams]

Hi,

I've never considered compensators to be 'stuffy' at all, so no, not really. I imagine you get that from bad leakage in the valves, or slide unions?

I've only just finished cleaning this one and it still has a sticky 2nd. valve so it won't be given it a real full blow until the weekend maybe.

CB

[Highams]

The engraving on the bell is from Vickers Ltd. a famous shipyard and airship factory in the 1900's;

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenf ... ickers.htm

http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k309/ ... hbari3.jpg

CB