1911 King BBb tuba

[Josh Calloway]

I recently bought this very old King tuba. It's pitched in B flat and has a 20" inch bell and is about 35" tall. According to the previous owner, it was made in 1911 for the Pittsburgh Symphony and was property of the orchestra until 1982. It has two options for the main tuning slide. One is a short slide and makes the instrument play very sharp. The other is very long and I can play it in tune, but it's almost all the way in. I think it could be a high pitch/low pitch horn. It has an odd size mouthpiece receiver, too. A regular shank mouthpiece only goes about halfway in. I'm thinking about either getting a mouthpiece with a custom shank or replacing the receiver with a new one. Does anyone know how much it would cost to put on a new receiver? I've also thought about adding a fourth valve. I don't know if there are any risks associated with making some these changes or how expensive they might be. I also wonder who might have played this tuba in the past. Any information or advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

[Bob Kolada]

Very cool! Assuming the bore is .689, you might be able to get a new 4th valve from King/Conn. That way you could avoid the kinda funny looking results that you'd get if you used a 2nd valve (seems to be the most common one to use).

Was this the one that was listed as a Bb/C tuba on eBay?

My little front valve King Eb () has a similar slide and I also have it almost all the way in. If the long one is almost all the way in to be in tune, you might get it trimmed a bit to be safe (the crook, not the slides!). How close is the short one to C?

I think the average price for a receiver swap is around 50 bucks. I vote to do that, perhaps trim the long slide, maybe flip the 1st slide to 70up/30down, and play as is.

[Art Hovey]

I met a gentleman today at the CT TubaChristmas who was playing a King of similar vintage and design, but with four valves and a bigger bell. It also had a top slide on the 1st valve tubing that appeared to be original. According to the engraving it was made for the US Navy; he said it had been used on the USS Yorktown, and then had suffered from several years in a high school.

Swapping the mouthpiece receiver is easy. A new one will cost some money, but there are plenty of junk tubas that can be cannibalized.

Shortening the long tuning slide is also easy. Or you could lengthen the short slide if you can find the right tubing.

Grafting on a 4th valve is not so easy. It can be done, but it will require a lot of time and effort. A slightly less difficult way is to put on a rotary valve instead of a piston.
If the 4th valve has a slightly bigger bore you can mount it just below the pistons; if it is significantly bigger bore you can put it at the wider end of the tuning slide. You'll find that the low register is a lot more open with a larger bore in the 4th valve tubing.

Here's one that I did as an experiment a few years ago; I am still playing it regularly whenever I need a small tuba.

http://www.galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/frugalhorn.html

[Josh Calloway]

Yes, this is the one that was on eBay. I was able to buy it on a second chance offer. The bore, if I measured correctly, is about .688". With the shorter slide, it plays on the flat side of B, so maybe it would come in handy on a cold day. One day next week I'll sit down and play it with the short slide pulled all the way out and then with the long slide pushed all the way in and see how close they are. Thanks for the info!

[iiipopes]

Yes, the standard bore for King tubas from the beginning was and still is .687.

[Bob Kolada]

Check out the main slide guys- it starts right after the valve set (mine does too). To put a 4th valve there would probably require modifying the main slide (making the shape of the slide more like a J than a U or some such thing).

I vote for some mild mods (receiver swap and shorten main slide), and playing as is. There's not a lot of 1911 tubas out there!

[Josh Calloway]

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I realized yesterday that I had an old King 26 mouthpiece with an odd tapered shank. The shank doesn't look any different than any other mouthpiece at a glance, but you can see the taper if you look closely. I put it in the tuba and it fits perfectly! The horn plays very well with this mouthpiece. The rim is a little wider than I prefer, but other than that it's a great mouthpiece.

[Mark]

Here's one that I did as an experiment a few years ago; I am still playing it regularly whenever I need a small tuba.

Art,

You have such delicate hands!

[iiipopes]

And yes, the King 26 tuba mouthpiece was the standard mouthpiece for decades as well. Great mouthpieces. Just ask Mike Finn!

[TUbajohn20J]

Yep the King 26 really makes my 40K sing, and also sounds GREAT with the new King2341 tubas