Walter Sear tuba

[graybach]

Hi all,
I have a band director friend who got in touch with me today. He has a Walter Sear rotary valve tuba which a music store rented to him for the semester because he has too few horns for the number of tuba players he has in concert band. The music store told him the horn was a CC tuba, but I told him I think it is probably a BBb tuba and not a CC tuba because when he checked up and down the scale with the tuner, the fundamental pitch that came out on the open tone was actually a sharp A on the tuner and the lower open tone was a sharp E (The main tuning slide is pulled out as far as it will go) and he said all kinds of weird notes were coming out of the horn when he checked it with the tuner. Does anyone with knowledge of the tuning intricacies of Sear tubas on here have any advice, especially if you've run into this problem before? I am not there to be able to play the tuba (he is 10 hours away) or I probably could tell right away.
Thanks much,
Gray Bach

[aqualung]

Why is the tuning slide pulled way out?

If the horn was a CC, to get a sharp A on the open horn the tuning slide would have to be pulled out farther than the length of the 1st valve circuit. And that aint gonna happen.

[graybach]

[quote="aqualung"]Why is the tuning slide pulled way out?

If the horn was a CC, to get a sharp A on the open horn the tuning slide would have to be pulled out farther than the length of the 1st valve circuit. And that aint gonna happen.[/quote

Not sure on why the slide was way out. I was just regurgitating what he said and I didn't even think about that until you asked it. I believe the horn is a BBb, but was more asking the question in the original post in this manner- I once played a very old Alexander F tuba. I had to do some very funky things to get that horn to play anywhere near in tune. I meant to ask (And I worded it poorly) if Walter Sear tubas had the same kind of tuning issues, and, if so, maybe that's why he was having some of the issues with the pitch on the horn. I've pretty much already decided that it's a BBb tuba and the store is wrong...

[Dan Schultz]

Do you know the origin of the tuba? Walter Sear was not a manufacturer and had horns stenciled for him by a couple of European companies. As I recall... two of them were Cerveny and DePrinz.

I've seen maybe a half dozen of the Walter Sear tubas and all seem to play 'OK'.

Does it have string-action rotors?

[Tom Coffey]

Walter Sear was a multi-talented New York City character who was one of the first importers to recognize the quality of European horns and import them on a large scale. As TubaTinker said, a lot were Cervenys and DePrins. I think almost everyting he brought in was for the school market and was in BBb, although I think Sear himself played CC horns. At any rate, the phenomemon you describe is almost certainly from having a BBb horn with the slide stuck all the way out. Getting the slide moveable again will probably fix the problem. I have never played a DePrins, but some of those Cervenys were very good horns.
Among other things, Walter was a good poet and made a lot of his living in the electronics business. I never met him but understand he was a Renaissance Man, with a lot of interests and skills. He was a student of Bill Bell's. I have played a lot of his original duets--good writing.
Good luck with the horn!

[graybach]

Thanks to all who replied. I will pass this information along to my friend...

[graybach]

This reply has been delayed because of the snow we have been getting in the South, but thanks to all who helped on this thread. It turned out that when my band director friend called the shop, (I posted this when his high school was out for snow and it was impossible for him to get back to the shop since they were closed as well because of the snow so he called and asked if I might be able to think of anything that could be wrong with the horn), they told him to bring the horn back when he could. He did and they discovered that someone had accidentally switched lead pipes between two horns they were working on, and that was the reason (at least that's what they told him) that an "a" was coming out on the open fundamental of the horn. Once they switched the leadpipes back, everything was fine, but he didn't take the horn back because he originally asked them for a CC horn and they gave him what ended up being a BBb. He's looking for a new shop...

[jacobg]

I've got a rotary Walter Sear-Cerveny BBb. It should say "Made in Czechoslovakia" on the lead pipe if it's original.
Great horn, no intonation problems, no string rotors (maybe these have been replaced?), and I don't think mine is Kaiser-bore - just a regular 4/4 size BBb tuba.