Bell diameters and Boosey and Hawkes E-flats in the UK

[cjk]

I've seen B&H/Besson E flat tubas with 15 inch bells (381mm) and with 19 inch bells (483mm). Now there's the 980 and 983 with 17" inch bells (432mm). Was there ever an intermediate model with a 17 inch bell prior to the Imperial?

I'm also curious as to the model history of B&H / Besson Solbron, Imperial, Sovereign. and what perceptable changes went into each one. In other words, what's the difference??

A little Google searching found me these, but they are not quite what I was looking for.
http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/galpin/gdsj.html
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/mar2001 ... 50191.html



--Christian (yeah, it's a slow day)

[Steve Inman]

Not a direct answer, but there is some general info in these threads you may enjoy reading, since it's a slow day:

viewtopic.php?t=4754

viewtopic.php?t=4733

FWIW, I've only ever heard of the 15" bell Boosey / Besson Eb tubas, then evolving into the 19" bell "Fletcher model" (s) due to his request for an "orchestral Eb", then most recently to the 17" model.

Cheers,

[Rick Denney]

I... from photos I have seen, I know some of the F tubas had large bells.

You must have seen different photos than I have. All the British-style F tubas I've seen (many are pictured in Bevan's book) are quite small. The bell flare may be big in relation to the instrument, but the instruments themselves are only slightly bigger than euphoniums.

Bevan lists an inventory of known orchestral F tubas used in Britain in the past. The bell diameters that are mentioned range between 12 and 15 inches, with one being 17 inches (the one owned by Stuart Roebuck that had the interchangeable bell). Bevan includes a photo of Roebuck with the larger instrument, and it is much larger than the typical Barlow F tubas pictured elsewhere, it seems to me. Most seem to be about the size of my Yamaha 621 F tuba, which has a 14" bell.

Rick "who would like to play one of these someday" Denney