Detachables bells?

[TheHatTuba]

Has anyone seen/made/owned a tuba with a detachable bell that detached from large end of the bottom bow (ie, the entire bell was removable) instead of the bell stack?

[Timswisstuba]

Unknown to most people, Roger Bobo's Yamaha F tuba had a removable bell at the bottom bow. Yamaha wanted to try a larger bell but Roger had a preferance to the
current (smaller) bell.

[Bob Kolada]

There was an older F tuba posted on here a few years ago that, I think, could be taken apart like that.

[bort]

There was an older F tuba posted on here a few years ago that, I think, could be taken apart like that.

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[bububassboner]

I know some of the Kanstul tubas are this way. Grand CC comes to mind.

[Dan Schultz]

DEG (Dynasty) used to make a bell that detached at the bottom bow. These things were referred to as 'baby contras'. They have a collar set at the bottom bow and a detachable brace at the top bow. I have three of them here. Pretty useless. I bought them for the bells as they are roughly the same size as those on the Yamaha YBB-103 tubas.

That bottom joint would have to fit very well as there is more acoustic pressure at the bottom of the bell than at the top.

[davidgilbreath]

My Kanstul 5/4 900-4v BB♭ is constructed in this manner.

[pjv]

I used to own a B&S CC frankentuba with a handmade Josef Monke bell with the connection after the bottom bow. The connection looked very similar to the F in Kolada's/Bort's link. I remember there being a rubber ring in the connection to further prevent any air leakage.
The horn played well and I used it for several years. I can't say that I ever noticed any problems with the tuba that I could relate to this linkage. It was basically a B&S CC which was tweaked in a positive way as far as was reasonably possible.