A program I work for just received a generous donation of two vintage tubas. I'm hoping to find out a bit more about what we got.
The first is in CC. It has no engravings that I could find. Receiver is fairly large, with a standard Laskey shank (not pictured) almost completely swallowed up.
The second is in BBb. This one has very noisy and slow valves with clockwork springs. There is a small engraving that I didn't have the foresight to take a pic of, but it looks like an upside down V (or an A without the horizontal bit). I'll see if I can get a pic soon. The leadpipe and receiver are one piece and it takes a very small shank.
Hello Luke Storm,
congratulations on the new tubas. The first tuba is perhaps one of the earliest VEB made (predecessor to the GDR B&S name) CC Tubas ca. 1960s with its half round nickel silver braces and brass valve casings. An unusual find.
The other horn is as Tabor says, a russian made tuba shaped decoration...
The 45° entry to and exit from the valve block points towards B&S (or its predecessor). That assumption is confirmed by the shape of the thumbring flange.
VEB is short for Volkseigener Betrieb (Factory owned by the people). That is not a brand name, but a category of companies within the DDR/GDR. B&S also was a VEB back then. As far as I can follow the names of GDR makers, the predecessor of B&S was the Sächische Musikinstrumentenfabrik (Saxonian Music Instruments’ Factory).
The S-links are an older style, but were still an option for the premium B&S range at least in 1985. The spiral springs are a newer style. From an instrument made for the German market I would have expected S-links combined with clocksprings, so this one could have been made for the US-market. Depending on period and on importer it may have been engraved with a stencil name. One possibility would have been Schneider. It could be 60 years or so old, but it might be somewhat younger.
