How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

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pigman
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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by pigman »

98% of the instruments York made were crap.
If not for the 2 Chicago horns no one would know the York name
I have owned 6 yorks most require a board strapped to you butt so you dont fall in

There may be some good cut jobs out there but on the whole. Forget the ledgend and look elseware.
I have Played Both the Chicago horns. Tey are not perfect nor are the the holy grail
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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by Tim Jackson »

here is an all original York 6/4 CC from the 20s. Well... haha - actually a BBb but I like to say it's one of the horns that inspired early tubists to request a CC 6/4 from York. Much more color than the 345 I once owned. Singing high register and rockin' low end. I think I paid around 7K on a very wild ebay battle years ago. (a very cool story in itself) I have never regretted jumping on this one... amazing how many orchestral pieces can be managed on 3 valves. It is so much fun in a large hall! I really think part of the magic in this player is the fact that it only has 3 valves. The intonation is very good. I'm sure there are better horns - but the resonate sound and color this horn brings has been a joy on every use. OK, down side... it has the longest valve throw I have ever had the pleasure of reckoning with. I use a York 91 mouthpiece and just acquired the vintage York Al-tru - both mps have the Kaiser shank.
The horn plays at A440 with the donut disengaged. I reads so much about the difficulties of vintage 6/4s... This model/design is very nice.

Tim J
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roweenie
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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by roweenie »

pigman wrote:98% of the instruments York made were crap.
If not for the 2 Chicago horns no one would know the York name
I have owned 6 yorks most require a board strapped to you butt so you dont fall in

There may be some good cut jobs out there but on the whole. Forget the ledgend and look elseware.
I have Played Both the Chicago horns. Tey are not perfect nor are the the holy grail
If you mean crap regarding build quality (and I'm not sure that's what you mean), I'd have to agree with you at that level - but that's where it ends.

(I suspect the folks at the York factory were understaffed and overworked, and cut a few corners here-and-there.....)

With that said, you should come play the ones I've got, I think you'd take this statement back.
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day".
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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by Donn »

Note that "98% of the instruments York made" would be mostly instruments other than tubas - saxophones, trumpets, etc. No one wants that stuff at all.
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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by windshieldbug »

York can divided into two periods- before and after Carl Fischer.
Before WWII and Fischer they were a specialty company capable of making the best hand-made instruments. After Fischer bought them the Grand Rapids plant was changed to make mass-manufacturing student-line instruments with output and profit the prime motive.
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Daniel C. Oberloh
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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by Daniel C. Oberloh »

From my own experience,

I know of a hand full of original York CC tubas scattered around the US. They vary in condition and operational states.
pigman wrote:98% of the instruments York made were crap.
York instruments across the board were well made. The designs of the trumpets, cornets and trombones were okay but for the most part, rather pedestrian. However, they did make some very fine examples of trumpets and cornets such as the the Feather Touch, Monarch and the highly collectable Air Flow models of the 1930s. York made saxophones that were of cutting edge design and construction but those are quite rare and were not able to compete with the likes of Conn, Martin or the sax manufacturing giant Buescher. They offed French horn models that were from a design stand point, simply copies of instruments offered by other manufacturers like C.F. Schmidt (King and Conn did the same and still do).
Their low brass models were the flagship of J.W. York. Their tubas, euphoniums and baritones were well designed but like ALL low brass of that period, York's had some minor intonation issues to some degree that were quite manageable, All suffer to some extent the ravages of time so to to critically state that they have build quality issues is a bit of a stretch when talking about eighty-plus year old horns.

I have personally rebuilt numerous York valve assemblies and find them to have very good construction and clearly thought out designs that quite neatly lend themselves to future repair and rebuild. The materials used thru out were top shelf and the plating was of the highest quality. The branches, bows, crooks and drawn tubing are as good as any other manufacturer of the period, if not better. The machined components were consistent, well designed and accurately executed as was there bell spinning and stack-bow extrusion. Pre WWII York instrument build quality was fantastic and to state the contrary, in my view shows a truly limited knowledge of this topic. I have rebuilt numerous York instruments and have several waiting in the wings, including one early 30s CC recording model. They are not easy projects by any stretch of the imagination but in my opinion, all are a worthwhile effort.

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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by scottw »

[quote="Tim Jackson"]
The horn plays at A440 with the donut disengaged.

This is a new one on me: What donut is engaged? What is it, tuba-wise? :?
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Re: How many "original" York CC tubas do we have now?

Post by Paul Maybery »

Just as a side bar:
The donut was an extra loop at the narrow end of the MTS.
With it in place the horn would be pitched at LP or low pitch,This was often considerably lower that A 440. More like 439
On several of these York Eb Monsters the LP was below 440 and so the donut could not be used
With it in, you guessed it the horn was in HP or high pitch.
I did discover that in the high pitch configuration there was enough slide left to get down to 440.
Also scribed on the tuning slides were marks to indicate LP.
I've seen these on pretty much all the lower York horns up to the Eb altos.
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