Anybody ever seen of these ???

[Bob Kolada]

Cool!

[tubajazzo]

Hi Kurt,

how long did you polish it....or has it been restored by professional repair techs? Looks nice, much nicer than my old Weltklang (which is even older I think because of the engraving)

Gerd

[Wyvern]

I see the 5th valve paddle at the back operated by the left hand - very unusual! Could be B&S stencil, but Cerveny also comes to mind???

Does it feel of light, or heavy construction?

[Chuck Jackson]

Many Years ago when I was teaching at the Armed Forces School of Music, a Marine came through the Intermediate Course with a horn exactly like this. It may have been one of the best F tubas I had ever played (even with a spurious low C, it was a GREAT horn), even with the goofy 5th valve paddle it was easy to play. IIRC, it was one of the few F's at that time that I played where you could actually use standard fingerings for the F#, G, G#, and A at the top of the staff. Congrats on avery nice find.

Chuck"who remembers offering, to no avail, good 1987 money for the horn"Jackson

[imperialbari]

If this tuba has been around Rumania or Bulgaria, there may be a good explanation for that engraving.

Klaus

[Bob Kolada]

IIRC, it was one of the few F's at that time that I played where you could actually use standard fingerings for the F#, G, G#, and A at the top of the staff.

Do you mean "standard" or "ideal"?

[imperialbari]

This instrument has all of the features of a B&S: 5 valves and ball&socket linkage. Those were not to be expected in Weltklang instruments, which however easily could have the same main bugles as the high end models.

I have told this thing often on various brass lists:

The Warsaw pact countries cooperated economically and they would cheat on each other whenever and wherever possible. Their main game was getting currencies compatible with $ and £, so that they could buy western cars for their nomenclatura. Volvo’s were the big thing for Honegger and friends.

GDR had luxury holidays high on the agenda for its workforce. Internally at the Baltic coast, externally at the Black Sea coast in Rumania and Bulgaria. GDR, aside from space technology, was the tech leader of the Warsaw pact, also in respect of brass instruments. GDR would provide instruments for the pro symphonies, but they would not want the cheaters at the Black Sea pilfering western currency supplies from themselves by reexporting these high end instruments to the west. Hence even top models were given the second line engraving of Weltklang.

These instruments pop up on diverse national eBay auctions with sellers from Romania and especially from Bulgaria. I wouldn’t dare entering into a deal with these countries. Yet there are samples of deals ending well.

Klaus