Pictures of famous players and their horns.

[b.williams]

This thread is better suited for the CLIPART Forum

Are you the TubeNet Police?

[tofu]

This thread is better suited for the CLIPART Forum

Are you the TubeNet Police?

The official TubeNet Police

[tofu]

Hay that could be Fatty Arbuckle hanging off the back of that truck.
He was a Keystone cop at one time.
Now I don't feel so confused........or do I ?

Bingo!

I didn't know whether anybody would catch it since it has been awhile since the Keystone Cops were widely seen.

Nice catch.

[Heavy_Metal]

I prefer them on this page. ClipArt isn't a forum I check often. Thanks for the wonderful pictures!

+1

[roughrider]

I bought the print of William Bell from Mark Chalabala and had it framed. It hangs in my practice room at home and looks great!

[dsfinley]

You can't see the horns that well but it's still a cool pic of Bill Bell and Roger Bobo.

[Rivercity Tuba]

Same horn, guts altered

[tofu]

I think we know who and what this is.

Yeah, we know what it is, but the moderator forbids that kind of language!

Doesn't this apparent Chinese clone really belong in a infamous tubist thread?

[roughrider]

You can't see the horns that well but it's still a cool pic of Bill Bell and Roger Bobo.

Is it possible to purchase a print of that picture somewhere? I would like to have it as a piece of art in my home.

[Ferguson]

Oblig?

[dsfinley]

You can't see the horns that well but it's still a cool pic of Bill Bell and Roger Bobo.

Is it possible to purchase a print of that picture somewhere? I would like to have it as a piece of art in my home.

I don't know but I downloaded the picture from Roger Bobo's website. You could probably blow the picture up and frame it but I don't know, I'm not a techie.

[hbcrandy]

These are two photos of Mr. Torchinsky. The first is of Mr. Torchinsky and his King CC tuba. The second was taken at the Robin Hood Dell. The gentleman without the tuba is Mr. Paul Tripp. The King is more visible in the second photo.

[hbcrandy]

Kilton Vinal Smith played F tuba with the Boston Symphony. He was Chester Schmidts' predecessor. The tuba in the photo is an F tuba.

[swillafew]

The photos of Mr. Torchinsky are richly appreciated.

The lack of clones of that horn is puzzling to me.

[hbcrandy]

The photos of Mr. Torchinsky are richly appreciated. The lack of clones of that horn is puzzling to me.

The only tuba styled after the King, rotary valved CC tuba is the Bill Bell Meinl Weston, models 35 and 37. They play very similarly to the King.

Years ago, I owned a King, rotary valved CC tuba. It was not a very good instrument. It was stuffy and out of tune with itself. When I asked Mr. Torchinsky, in a lesson, about the King CC tuba and if he would still play it today considering what is currently available, his answer was, that he would, if it was the King that he owned and played during his career. He said that there were only about a dozen of these tubas made by King and that some of the were very bad instruments. The very bad category included Mr. Bell's King. Even Mr. Torchinsky's tuba had many intonation quirks. Some of these quirks were made workable by the re-routing of the third valve slide plumbing upwards, next to the first valve slide, so that notes using the third valve could be adjusted with the player's left hand. This was Mr. Torchinsky's innovation and was brought to fruition by the H. N. White company. After seeing this on Mr. Torchinsky's tuba, both Bill Bell and Joe Novotny had their King CC tubas modified, also.

The bottom line is that the King CC tuba was not cloned because of its inferior playing characteristics as compared to the well-designed instruments of today. My theory is that the taper of the instrument needs serious modification to line up the partials of the tube with its fundamental.

[Jay Bertolet]

I have to agree Randy. That horn, when I played it, had very difficult to control intonation. Ironically, at that time Mr. T. and I were playing on instruments that were very similar and for very similar reasons. I had a Rudy Meinl RM-10 (still have it, amazing horn) that had very hard to handle intonation also. But the element these two horns shared was the sound. Both made a sound that was worth dealing with screwy intonation. Both were very bad instruments to listen to up close but out in the hall or with an orchestra, that sound changed dramatically. Mr. T. also had an Eb version of his King, a one of a kind special instrument. He had asked King to make him one to use on Petrouschka, if I recall correctly. He hated it. It had even worse intonation plus quite a few hard to center notes. That horn gathered dust mostly. Good memories...

[hbcrandy]

Jay:

I fully agree with you about the sound of the King. When played in the orchestra, the sound from the hall was superb, even the horrible King that I briefly owned and played.

Before I retired from playing in the Spring of 2012, I played a Bell Model MW as one of my CC tubas. Its sound reminded me, very much, of my King. Unfortunately, so did the intonation. Eb one line below the staff was in tune when the third valve slide was pulled about 3 inches. Ab on the bottom space of the staff was in tune with the 3rd valve slide pulled about 3/4 of an inch. I had a spring load put on the third valve slide so that the slide would rest 3 inches out for the Eb. When ever I played a G#/Ab, I would push the #3 slide in. The spring load and the vented 3rd valve brought the slide back out.

There were gymnastics required to play the King/MW style tuba, but, the sound was worth the effort.

[Toobist]

The current owner is paying me to lengthen it to BBb.

[Art Hovey]

I'm surprised that no one has posted this one yet. The photo was from some time back in the '30s, but Mr. Bell was still using it in the 1950s. The instrument is a small Cerveny CC tuba. I don't know if he ever performed with it, but Walter Sear had it in his shop in 1966 or 67, completely overhauled and like new. He wanted something like $500 for it. I played on it and liked it, but did not have that kind of money to throw around.
A week later I received a retroactive paycheck unexpectedly, for the same amount. I called Walter, but he had already packed it up to send to someone in Georgia.

[tofu]

Bloke posted Fatty Arbuckle's photo on the left - on the right is Philip Donatelli

Who knew they were the SAME guy

No wonder he needed to get two of the legendary Yorks!

One for each alias.