What age is my Helicon???

[armytuba]

Hello, Tubenetters and fellow military tubists both past and present.

I am the proud owner of an Amati BBb Helicon, a B.A.H. (Bad A** Helicon...lol) similar to the one sold by the Woodwind and Brasswind as a Cerveny brand, but a few decades older. It was purchased from Herr Roland Ekle at his store, Musiktreffpunkt, in Dettenhausen, Germany, back in 2001 during my tour of duty there. At the time of purchase, I didn't bother asking about the helicon's age but since I've owned it a decade now I figured I'd ask you experts out there.

First, here's a clickable photo of it:


On the 4th valve casing there is a .14 stamped on it, to include the number 14 stamped on the bottom of each and every rotary valve (viewed when the bottom caps are unscrewed).

I've searched the Tubenet archives and have come up with zero leads on trying to determine the age of my instrument. Thanks for any info you can provide. Hooah!

[Dan Schultz]

Hi, Santos!

That number 14 on the valve casings doesn't mean much. That's just a build number for the valve set so they can keep the parts together. They may have built 25 valvesets at the same time and just put sequence numbers on them. They may have built 100 sets.... who knows??

There may be some sharper eyes out there but I'll venture a guess that your horn isn't as old as one might think. You can still get clock-spring mechanisms so that's not much of an indicator of age.

Are there any clues? ... like made in ?????.... or GDR... or Czech Republic? or anything like that?

[armytuba]

To Dan and goodgigs, thanks for the information!

[imperialbari]

Brian is right about this instrument being post-WWII. Amati was a state enforced conglomerate of private makers after the communist take over in 1948. B&S would be a GDR equivalent.

Over a century or more Cerveny changed the design of their BBb helicons. This one looks similar to the current layout. The element I look at is the main tuning slide sitting right after the neck. Clocksprings possibly still may made, but the quite heavy S-inks point away from the more recent decades. I cannot tell exactly, but between 1960 and 1980 should be a reasonably safe guess.

Klaus

[The Big Ben]

Whatever the age, this helicon is a real burner! I sat downrange of Santos at TubaChristmas a couple of years ago and caught its full force! One of his buddies was there with Santos' 22J Conn and doing it justice. Quite the sound! I was looking forward to hearing the horns again but I see that he has changed postings.

[imperialbari]

As with some of the big American made sousaphones this just a rewrapped tuba. It takes its player, but it surely has potentials for sounding great.

Klaus