Mr. Jacobs' Anton Dehmal f tuba

[tclements]

I hear that the legendary Dehmal that was discussed in Mr. Jacob's book recently has been found. Attached is the picture of the Dehmal instrument that I have. Can anyone tell me what it is that I have? Thanks!

[Alex C]

I can't tell you if it's the tuba owned by the CSO or not. You will need good provenance to verify that this was the CSO horn. Do you have the history?

My first F tuba was a Sherzer set up the same way the CSO's horn was, 1-2-3 in the left hand and 3-2-4(quint?) in the right. Another student, years before, had a Sherzer F like mine. He got so frustrated that he bought a bag of concrete mix, poured it in the bell and dropped the horn off of Navy Pier.

My solution was to have 1-2-3 moved to the right hand and 4-2-3 to the left. That's when I decided it was not a very good tuba.

As you may know, Mr. Jacobs occassionally played the Reiner-purchased CSO F tuba cross-handed until he was able to hide it in the basement.

[brianf]

Apparrently the Dahmal was found by Rex Martin at Northwestern University recently. While I have not seen the horn, there is a very high probability that this is indeed the actual horn Mr Jacobs used.

[hubert]

Some years ago on a workshop I was told that the CSO Dehmal tuba then was used by Gary Buttery. Should be possible to check that....
Hubert

[tclements]

Hubert, I may be wrong, but I thought Gary's instrument is/was the 7 valve Alexander....

[Steven Noel]

Sure is Tony , ive played that Alex , really nice tuba . gary told me it had belonged to Abe T. from Phil Orchestra at one time .

[tclements]

I'd LOVE a chance to play that horn!! I LOVE Alexanders!

[L-I-B]

I own an instrument that looks nearly identical, bought in the late 70's from Bartold music in LA. My instrument is labeled Anton Dehmal Nachfolger. I am curious, is the old CSO instrument a straight up Dehmal, or does it have the Nachfolger designation as well. The other difference on my Viennese F is that my 6 valves are normal. The right hand 3 are our normal 1,2,3. On the left hand 4 is the normal 4 and 6 is a 2 step valve like a Mirafone 5th. And valve 5, it's special, it is a quarter step valve. Horn plays great, and the extra valves give me great combinations in the low range. I do not know if some earlier owner converted it, or if it was made for the export market.

[tclements]

L-I-B, I PLAYED that horn when I was a student in LA. Someone must have converted it as the left hand at that time was 1, 2, 3. Funny, I thought I had the Bartold tuba. But if you actually bought it from Norm, I guess I don't. Can you post photos for your tuba?

[L-I-B]

This is a picture of my Dehmal. I purchased it from Norm's booth at the TUBA conference in LA in 1978?. The main reason I attended the conference was to purchase either an F or Eb tuba to handle upcoming programing with the symphony. IMHO, this Dehmal was by far the best F for sale at that conference in 1978. There was a nice new Schilke Eb, but it cost more twice as much as the Dehmal. I attended a Bobo master class in the 80's in Oregon and he also remembered the horn from Bartold's shop. I had the linkages modified to Mirafone ball and socket.

Dehmal Tuba.jpg

[tclements]

Yeah, you got the Bartold horn, now that I see the photo. I wonder where the heck mine came from?