In 1981 I bought a pretty banged up Besson Imperial BBb tuba on the cheap from a guy whose wife "accidentally" had partially back over it with a pickup. I was living in Madison, WI at the time so I took it to Allied in Elkhorn Wisconsin and asked them to completely rebuild and silver plate it. They were great to work with and when I came to pick up the horn 6 weeks later I could not believe it when I opened the case. The horn literally looked brand new. I still own and play the horn and still am impressed with their work. They only charged me $900 at the time for a complete rebuild and silver plate job. They even re-silverplated an extra 3 mouthpieces I sent them during the rebuild for no additional charge.
I don't know if they are still around but I was (and am) very happy with their work. One of the Getzens was running it back then.
Best Save for a Repair Shop?
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Lee Stofer
- 4 valves
- Posts: 935
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:50 am
If one is willing to spend the time and money, most any tuba can be restored. Some of the most dramatic saves in my shop are the ones for school systems, where the budget does not allow for complete restoration, but the poor, tired, wretched thing must be made playable and respectable-looking as possible again.
We encountered a Yamaha 321 euphonium about a week ago that was one of the worst cases I've seen. Last year, the student was thrown out of band, and he then proceeded to dump sand into the instrument before finally turning it in. The moist sand helped make for some of the worst corrosion I've ever seen in an instrument, and it literally took hours to extract the pistons without damaging them. After chemically-cleaning it twice, it was fine and showed no signs of abuse.
Our other biggest challenge in recent times was a 40-year-old Amati BBb tuba which already had 5 patches on the bell, and needed more. The 2nd valve top bearing had been broken off, and just about all of the body tubing was out-of-alignment and the touch points were unsoldered, which rendered all of the slides out-of-alignment. A horn like this would be just as easy to restore as to bring it to proper playing condition. Ahh, the challenge of it all!
We encountered a Yamaha 321 euphonium about a week ago that was one of the worst cases I've seen. Last year, the student was thrown out of band, and he then proceeded to dump sand into the instrument before finally turning it in. The moist sand helped make for some of the worst corrosion I've ever seen in an instrument, and it literally took hours to extract the pistons without damaging them. After chemically-cleaning it twice, it was fine and showed no signs of abuse.
Our other biggest challenge in recent times was a 40-year-old Amati BBb tuba which already had 5 patches on the bell, and needed more. The 2nd valve top bearing had been broken off, and just about all of the body tubing was out-of-alignment and the touch points were unsoldered, which rendered all of the slides out-of-alignment. A horn like this would be just as easy to restore as to bring it to proper playing condition. Ahh, the challenge of it all!
Lee A. Stofer, Jr.
