Besson New Standard Eb

[sousaphone68]

Could you post a picture of the "bit" as I have an Eb New Standard and it did not come with a bit and has never needed one.
I play mine with a DW 2 and a clone 24aw with no problems.

Is it flat on open notes?

You could as a test try some very heavy oil and if the open notes improve then you may have leaky valves.

I have read here of a modification known as a Fletcher cut were the rere bow has an inch or so trimmed from it. search.php?keywords=fletcher+cut&fid%5B0%5D=2" target="_blank

There maybe other tips to try in the above threads.

Have you asked any other players to try it to see if it is flat for every one.

[iiipopes]

The "Fletcher Cut" is done on the first generation Sovereigns. New Standards are older than that and don't need the cut. It has to do with the larger bell on the Sovs.

These tubas were never meant to use a bit, like on a Martin or Conn 2XJ. It sounds to me like something is off. Either there is an obstruction, a leak, or the valves need either replating or at least alignment.

The 3-valve comps are some of the most in-tune with themselves tubas ever made. It should be spot on with about 1/2 to 3/4 inch pull on the main slide with the Wick 3. So something is amiss. Investigate thoroughly. I'm guessing leaks, since these are old tubas, and I started having deteriorating solder joints (one bow came loose in the middle of a concert as I tried to tune) on the 3-valve comp BBb New Standard I used to have.

[sousaphone68]

Having just re read the original post and iiipopes post the bit may have been added after a cut gone wrong.

Is it sharp without the bit while using the small mouthpiece?

PM me a contact email and I will email a photo showing the dimensions of my bows so you can measure yours and compare to see if your Besson has been cut already.

[MikeW]

The "Fletcher Cut" is done on the first generation Sovereigns. New Standards are older than that and don't need the cut. It has to do with the larger bell on the Sovs.

Actually the cut was first applied to Fletcher's small-belled Eb, which was built in 1966, well before the birth of the Sovereign.

The "Fletcher Cut" (which Fletcher called the "Parker Cut") is/was an adjustment that could be made to B&H/Besson Eb tubas to raise the pitch. The cut is usually made to bring the instrument up to A=440; Fletcher, however, brought his Eb up to A=440 by retro-fitting a shorter mouthpipe from a cavalry tuba, and used the cut to raise the pitch further to A=446 or even higher, to give himself a bit of wriggle-space in the orchestra.

The “cut” amounts to shortening the back bow by up to 76mm, or 3 inches: This means removing up to 38mm, or 1.5 inches, from each side of the bow. Depending on how you play, and on what mouthpiece you use, and on which pitch you are trying to achieve, you may not need to cut the full 76mm; to help figure out how much you need to cut, remember that at room temperature, shortening an EEb tuba by a half-inch (12.7 mm) will raise the pitch by about 5 cents, so cutting 3 inches will raise the pitch by roughly 30 cents. Fletcher tried unsuccessfully to convince B&H that they should manufacture their instruments slightly sharp, thus allowing the player to adjust tuning either way; This seems like a no-brainer, but B&H didn't go for it until the second run of Sovereigns (all later Sovs have a shorter back bow, so they are effectively cut before leaving the factory).

The cut was originally applied to older instruments in the B&H Imperial and Besson New Standard class that were built in both high pitch and low pitch versions. The low-pitch (A=440) version had extra cylindrical tubing in the rear bow, which was easy to shorten. Unfortunately the rear bow was redesigned sometime in the seventies to make it continuously conical, so when cutting a later Imperial or an early Sovereign the taper of the cut ends has to be adjusted to fit it back into the ferrules, which adds to the cost.

As for the tuning bit I can see at least two possibilities worth checking:

• maybe this instrument was built in high pitch, and the bit brings it down to low pitch
• maybe the instrument has been cut to play high for orchestral use, and the bit reverses the cut for playing at A=440

[iiipopes]

Mike W - thanks for expanding on the history of the "Fletcher Cut," especially about the aspects of making the tuba play sharp to match the strings tuning sharp. That part of the history of the cut had not been fully explained anywhere I have looked for an explanation, only that the 19-inch Sov bell was simply tacked on, making the horn flat without reengineering the rest of the instrument to match the bell, and which was fixed later.

I agree the tuba should be checked for the possibilities you mention. However, I am more concerned about the OP expressing inconsistent intonation - some flat, some sharp, instead of a consistent flat or sharp intonation through the registers.