cute little tuba...

[The Big Ben]

Nice! It looks really good....

Is this horn the same general design as the 'Commuter" tuba?

I remember when the Hunt Bros. went silver crazy. As I remember it, they really lost their shirts on the deal...

[ken k]

also the stainless plating matches SSmouthpieces....

[Dan Schultz]

Nice! It looks really good....

Is this horn the same general design as the 'Commuter" tuba?

yes...except with a fixed bell, etc. I think the "junk" one (from which I salvaged the pistons and a few other parts) was a "Commuter Tuba".

from some other thread here on TubeNet:

That one actually has a piece of an old Holton Eb bell and a custom-made bell tenon on it.

[Timswisstuba]

This is my guess as to the reason for the stainless nickel plating:
If the tuba was shipped to the U.S. as an unfinished body, slides, valves, caps, buttons, etc., it would classify as "parts" with a much lower tariff rate. Stainless nickel plating - besides (as can be seen here) being nearly "bulletproof" (at least during the time this tuba was made) was considerably less expensive than silver plating (as the price of silver was skyrocketing due to the Hunt brothers attempting to corner the silver market...google it). Stainless nickel plating also does not require a very careful buffing job (a "stage one" type of job will suffice) to look great, and thus the polishing labor cost (in the U.S.) would be low as well.

Good speculation and interesting story Bloke, but (although hard to come by) , I've seen stainless nickel plated Willson-made instruments here in Switzerland and for this reason, I think your Caravelle was plated here in Switzerland. You may be right, however, that the reason why it was nickel plated may have something to do with the Hunt brothers.