howto determine what instrument I have...

[Dan Schultz]

I'm new at this, so please don't laugh too much..

I now have in my possession a JW York & Sons instrument that I am guessing (from the serial) was made about 1905. Because I am new to this instrument I am trying to figure out how to determine exactly what I have... I'm guessing either a EEb-Tuba or a Euphonium.. bell measures 15" and it stands about 28.25" with the bell on the floor, 3 valves. Looks just like the JW York EEb-Tuba ad from 1907 that I've seen on a couple of websites... serial #14440.

Any help is much appreaciated..

That's a pretty big bell for a euphonium. It's most likely an Eb tuba. Of course, the best way to tell is to blow the lowest easy-to-play note with no valves pushed. With the help of a tuner you can tell the key. If you don't play, take it to a music store and ask them for help.

One question, though... what's a tuba nubbie?

[Gongadin]

Dan, a tuba nubbie is a reference to a truncated leadpipe.
You would think that after all your years repairing instruments you'd know that!!

Best Regards,
Steven

[jlbreyer]

If you can post a picture, there are any number of folks here who will express an opinion. Some of them will even be correct

[Chuck(G)]

Sure sounds liike an old York small Eb tuba, right down to the 15" bell. Not bad instruments, if you've got one with good valves and not tuned to the old "low pitch" (A=435) or "high pitch"(A=452) tunings. Otherwise, some minor surgery may be called for to bring it to modern A=440 pitch.

If what you have is a modern 24W mouthpiece with the large American shank, you may find that it doesn't fit the smaller receiver of the York. On the other hand, I remember that Besson used to include a small-shank 24W with its 60's and 70's BBb instruments and that should fit just fine and would make a very decent mouthpiece for the York.

[Dan Schultz]

If you can post a picture, there are any number of folks here who will express an opinion. Some of them will even be correct

Here is a photo of my little horn..

Nice little horn. almost for certain an Eb variety. It looks like someone has done a little work on the leadpipe along the way... maybe added an extension to receive a regular shank MP. You're off to a running start if you already know trumpet fingerings.

[Dan Schultz]

Dan, a tuba nubbie is a reference to a truncated leadpipe.
You would think that after all your years repairing instruments you'd know that!!

Best Regards,
Steven

If you are referring to broken leadpipes.... yeh, I've seen a few of them.... especially the convertible Yammies. Fixing Yammie and King convertible leadpipes is an annual thing with high school marching bands.

[Chuck(G)]

Chuck, Interesting you mention the tuning, I had read about the different tuning on John Swain's site.. interestingly.. mine came with some "extentions" for the tuning slide.. they are just shy of 2.5" long.. with them installed.. seems to put the horn right about on Eb.. with my untrained lip. So I would have to assume then that the horn was originally tuned to the higher pitch?

Sure sounds like it. Before about 1910, the predominant pitch for brass bands in the US was high pitch. After that, the movement was toward the old "International Standard Pitch" of A=435. Around WWII, standard pitch moved to A440.

Consider yourself lucky that you found a brass instrument. Old "high pitch" flutes are unplayable and there's no easy way to fix them. Old "low pitch" flutes can sometimes be coaxed toward A440, but usually the intonation is pretty far off.

On some of these old instruments, a "double" tuning slide was used, where inserted one way, the horn could be used as a high-pitch instrument; the tuning slide turned upside-down and reinserted and the other tuning slides pulled a bit would yield a horn in low pitch. Sometimes you can find rings engraved on the slides of these old horns that indicate the appropriate pull for low-pitch use.

[Steve Inman]

Thanks! That will at least get me started...

Newbie is a "computer geek" term used to describe a person new to the subject matter... thought is was more fitting to change the spelling to nubbie..

Okay, now a mouthpiece question.. I've been trying to play it (not really a player yet.. ) with an old Bach 24W that my brother used on a Sousaphone about 30 years ago.. should I maybe aquire a different mouthpiece?

The Bach 24 *A* W mpc is a popular choice for Eb tuba. Not sure about the 24 *W*. I suspect it's the same diameter (good for a beginner, good for Eb tuba), but not as deep of a cup. Should be a reasonable "nubbie" mpc!

Good luck,