Besson 982

[J.c. Sherman]

I'll throw a "wrench" question in here...

I tried this summer a "York" Eb, the "new" ones looking identical to 982 Sovereigns. I don't think I've ever played a better Eb. Is that company the one NOW making the Sovereigns, or did that company stop making them? And if that is the current company making the Bessons, did they change anything with the name change?

J.c.S. (kicking himself he didn't buy the B stock one at WWBW)

[peter birch]

I'll throw a "wrench" question in here...

I tried this summer a "York" Eb, the "new" ones looking identical to 982 Sovereigns. I don't think I've ever played a better Eb. Is that company the one NOW making the Sovereigns, or did that company stop making them? And if that is the current company making the Bessons, did they change anything with the name change?

J.c.S. (kicking himself he didn't buy the B stock one at WWBW)

the York brand was part of Schreiber Kielworth, it ceased making instruments in the last year or so, and Kielworth is now part of the Buffet Group, that seems to be taking over the world of musical instrument manufacture (well, Europe at least). One difference between the Besson and York tuba was the "floating" lead pipe (i.e. not soldered to the bell) otherwise they were the same.

[Lectron]

I'll throw a "wrench" question in here...

I tried this summer a "York" Eb, the "new" ones looking identical to 982 Sovereigns. I don't think I've ever played a better Eb. Is that company the one NOW making the Sovereigns, or did that company stop making them? And if that is the current company making the Bessons, did they change anything with the name change?

J.c.S. (kicking himself he didn't buy the B stock one at WWBW)

I would agree to that, and no....It is not the current company making Bessons
Well there again...Schreiber Kielworth made york (and besson for a periode) and B&S make the Bessons, but
is all now (Buffet, Besson, B&S, Courtois, Hans Hoyer, Keilwerth, Melton Meinl, Scherzer, Schreiber) Buffet Crampon

I've played two Bessons in that league in my life, and been looking for one ever since
Also been looking for a York the period of time, but that seems just as impossible

I'm selling the one 981 I have as a clone actually turned out to be better (!)

[Wyvern]

Jonathan H would likely know since he's re-jigged his Wessex Eb with both leadpipe styles.

I have just been comparing leadpipes off the Wessex Eb of straight 981 and swan neck 982 style and the difference in length is very little. The higher leadpipe is about half-inch longer, so interchanging will make little difference to tuning.

Also last week I compared a Wessex Eb leadpipe to one off 1980's period 981 and the outside size measured with callipers was the same to .01 mm

I'm selling the one 981 I have as a clone actually turned out to be better (!)

Interesting to hear Lectron!

Of course you have not tried the 'improved' Wessex Eb. I think our new leadpipe as well as being ergonomically more comfortable actually focuses the sound a little bit better, while the gold-brass slightly warms. It plays good enough that two silver-plated Eb have just been chosen by London professional tuba players of which I will no doubt post more later in Sponsors forum

[Lectron]

The 'non-wessex' one I have is actually good and has very rich and warm sound

It has a longer (old) back bow to lower the pitch

Except some sharp (mechanical) edges, I can really not say anything wrong about the instrument.
The 981 I have (that is about to change owner) is more open, but it is also way more open
than most (if any) 981s I've played.

As mentioned earlier..I prefer the low lead-pipe design thou I does put the
right hand even further up than the high leadpipe.

As for the rose-brass leadpipe...I tried that on two other tubas (one with, one without)
and spotted a positive effect, but not that big that I can say for sure it had to be the leadpipe.

Given I've played god-knows-how-many 981 that are supposed to be identical and play completely different
I can not say that an even smaller difference in tonal character has to be due to the alloy of the leadpipe.

But there again...It was a step in the 'right' direction, so coincidences would have it to be so

[MikeW]

A lot of good stuff in the above but also some innacuracies:

A generous assessment, but it looks like most of my collected "factoids" need serious adjustments. Not too surprising I guess, as they were gathered from the web while I was trying to decide whether the "Fletcher cut" was a risk worth taking (I had the instrument cut, and it worked out fine).

Nice to get some solid information, for a change.

[Jess Haney]

So just another question. Has anyone played the new Geneva EEb bass or the Sterling.

[peter birch]

So just another question. Has anyone played the new Geneva EEb bass or the Sterling.

Geneva Instruments are of a generally high quality, I haven't seen their EEb tuba, but I have played a CC tuba form Geneva that was really nice, I have not seen any low brass from Sterling other than the Euphonium. There is word of a Yamaha Neo EEb coming this year, if it is as good as the Neo BBb, this will be one to look out for.

[Uncle Markie]

Fletcher used a Conn 2 (at least when I saw in the 1970s) on his Eb Besson, and sounded great.
Harvey Phillips used a Conn 2 also - another fabulous technician.
For $45 you might try one; they are still made by Conn-Selmer and turn up on Ebay all the time. I think new version has a different number - they come in the box with every Conn sousaphone and 5J tuba...

I keep one around - nice tight sound that "cleans up" tubby, splashy tubas with a nice focus.

Mark Heter

[Wyvern]

So just another question. Has anyone played the new Geneva EEb bass or the Sterling.

I have not played the Geneva EEb bass, but know it is actually made by Cerveny for Geneva. It has an exceptionally large diameter bell - looks like 500mm