Not wanting to hi-jack the other thread I thought I'd start my own. Anyone any idea on this Eb helicon and it's history?
It's made my "MARCEL" and has the letters "FF" and "DC" on the mouthpiece receiver, other than that it's been fixed from some dents and I would assume the bell has been re-soldered (due to a small ring around the banding). No serial number to speak of:
(Right click the image to open it in a new tab if it's too big to see the whole thing)
Last edited by RanmaSyaoran on Tue May 17, 2011 10:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
Are you really sure this one is in Eb? If so the space for the player must be really cramped.
The wrap of the valve block and the non-sounding support tubing running between the player and the valve slides for me points towards a Czech made helicon in BBb.
There even is one more puzzling element: The main tuning slide looks like having an insert piece with two stays. Early American sousaphones came in high or low pitch. The low pitch main tuning slide then at least in some cases had the shape of a W. The insert of this helicon has a length equaling almost a semitone. If this instrument is Czech and if it was made for its domestic market that would date this instrument to pre-1920 when there was a pitch reform.
There's plenty of space for the player, it's not cramped at all. I plays a very mellow and warm tone with a Euphonium mouthpiece but it was extremely flat with even a small tuba mouthpiece. Having used it for Christmas playing it certainly didn't sound right when played with BBb music and Eb was slightly off on the C or below the staff :/
The main tuning slide does have two inserts.
No doubt it'd sound fine if it had someone who knew what (if anything) was wrong with it or what might have gone wrong during the repairs.
The flat low range may be somewhat associated with a wrong mouthpiece. The general flatness when using a tuba mouthpiece maybe could be corrected by taking out the inserts from the tuning slide.
I am still puzzled by a full circle Eb helicon having so much leadpipe and tuning slide tubing.
Could it have been a frankenhelicorn or some kind of other key that has been converted to Eb I wonder, or, just having had a thought, if the lead pipe has been replaced and it's too short could that be causing the funny pitch? (The stem of the leadpipe reminds me of a lyre and the "FF" stamp is slightly under the end ring, suggesting it was cut down)
I'll take some more photo's of it at the weekend when I have access to it but for the time being I've got a euphonium mouthpiece waiting to have the shank wrapped in lead tape. If I can I'll try and record a scale or two.
It looks much like my "French" made Eb (with the full cross-brace) but the valve section is slightly different. I wrote "French" because the general conclusion here was that it probably is a Czech stencil horn. Mine also plays sort of in Eb most of the time but it might be high pitch. More here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33212
Last edited by David Richoux on Tue May 17, 2011 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
The valve tubing arrangement strongly resembles that of an old helicon that I had which was made by Henri Gunkel in Paris and imported by Lyon & Healy. But mine was much fatter.
