Getzen CB-50 / G-50 History

[Lee Stofer]

A customer of mine requested information on the heritage of the now-Stofer CC tuba, so I thought I'd offer this publicly, and hopefully dispel as much misinformation as possible. I will offer what I know, and what I think I know. If you know something for a fact that differs from this, please PM me and I will edit this.

Getzen was, and is a trumpet and trombone maker, who apparently entered into an agreement to support the Canadian Brass Ensemble with a line of instruments in exchange for their endorsement. I do not know, but if they supplied a double horn, it was probably from Holton, located across town in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. But, they needed to come up with a tuba.

My understanding is that Bob Rusk worked with Getzen to make a first prototype, cutting a York model 33 BBb to CC. York did not offer this model with front valves, so they took a Reynolds 4-valve Eb sousaphone valveset and fitted it with CC-length slides. Because of the tubing layout of the Reynolds valveset, the placement of a 5th rotor would be quite difficult. Several years earlier, Boehm & Meinl in Munich had built some York-style front-piston instruments, and placed the 5th rotor in the leadpipe, and this solution was also applied to the prototype Getzen. This was happening circa 1992, and the Canadian Brass line of instruments was launched in 1993.

For the tuba construction, Melton (Meinl-Weston) produced bells, large branches and rotors, and the small branches and piston valvesets were of US manufacture. Since Getzen had it's subsidiary Allied supply just across the parking lot, which is a major parts supplier for the band instrument repair business, they did not have to worry about making certain small parts. The Getzen tubas had King water keys, a variety of thumb rings were used, and several of the slide crooks are King. Getzen CB-50 tubas were made in 1993 and 1994, but the agreement with the Canadian Brass did not survive past 1994. Getzen secured the rights to continue to make the instrument, calling it the G-50 instead, and a limited production continued from 1995 until they were officially discontinued in January 2002.

There were problems with the instrument, ranging from issues with the silver plating, to intonation issues. Some thought that the 5th rotor in the leadpipe was a culprit, and at 23 lbs., it very likely was not the lightweight tuba that Mr. Daellenbach had wanted. George McCracken, formerly of the King Company, was commissioned to form a carbon-fiber bell for experimentation to make the instrument lighter. Apparently Getzen made another 5 of these bells, and from the condition of several of the 5 of these I now have indicates that they did not fare well in use, cracking at connections.

Fast-forward to 2012, and I received a call from Elkhorn, Wisconsin one September afternoon. "Lee, we have 5 pallet-loads of tuba parts we want to get rid of, and Tom Getzen would like to give you first crack at them." For two decades I had harbored a wish that I could build some truly like-new tubas one day, and this was truly exciting. I drove the 150 miles to Elkhorn, looked at what they were offering, listened to their offer, negotiated a little, and went to my Bank and went further into debt. About two days later, I drove the van to Elkhorn, and drove home with a heavy load of brass.

There was one assembled factory model, so that seemed to be a good place to start. I cleaned the body and slides, then pulled pistons out of a box, and found that they were too large, wouldn't fit. The valve casings had not been honed, and this was not a working model. I removed that valveset, took a valveset that was ready, and set about bracing it somewhat differently, trying to follow the York pattern as closely as possible.
To eliminate harmful acoustic feedback and maximize good resonance, I had to remove two braces that were harming the product, and add 4 new braces in other places. The leadpipes used on the Getzens were not conical-enough, so they were too small in diameter to correctly mate with the rotor, or with the 1st valve in the case of a 4-valve instrument. I annealed leadpipes, hand-hammered them on a tapered mandrel and made correct ferrules to connect them, and the very nature of the instrument was transformed to a very York-like instrument. The intonation and response was correct now, and they were so very easy to play.

Since that first success, I have been making more of these tubas, and renovating existing Getzen tubas for customers. My feeling is that the tuba Getzen produced was so very close to being a great tuba. Anderson Silver Plating has been a great help in making sure that the finish is beautiful and durable, and Martin Wilk has opened-up the option of this instrument being the only new tuba available with MAW valves.

Since a prospective customer is waiting for the next one, I'd better get off of the computer and get to work!

[Lee Stofer]

Under the category of "God working in mysterious ways" I offer the following;

In 1988, I was stationed in Germany and apprenticing as much as possible with a fine instrument repairman. At a Department of Defense auction, I purchased a Reynolds bright-silver Eb sousaphone, partially disassembled it, de-dented it, reassembled, cleaned and polished it, and played it quite a bit. I really liked that horn, even having a high-quality German road case made for it.

But, after returning to a Stateside assignment in 1989, the sousaphone mostly stayed in the case, the case gathering dust, and in about 1991/92, I took it to Tuba Exchange to have it sold. It took several months, and I was a little disappointed in how little I got for this fine instrument. I told Vince Simonetti, Well, I hope at least the new owner will get a lot of enjoyment out of playing this horn - it's really good, you know." Vince replied, "Chuck Daellenbach bought the sousaphone, and plans to scrap the body and use the valveset for some project." Hmmmmm. . . . . . . . . I was so disappointed to hear that, but now it seems that this was a part of how what is now my horn came to be.

[brianf]

I have played a CB-50/G-50 for over 20 years. The G-50 I own was in the Jacobs studio and is the last horn Arnold Jacobs played. Yes, there were issues! The third valve cap would pop out, it was brought back to Getzen once, years later Bob Rusk fixed it and years later Dave Fedderly sent me more valve caps and I found one that seemed to work. Last summer it popped off again! This was the time to make the trek to Iowa to see Lee. I played his horn and it was a lot better. He asked about a few problems with my horn and I agreed with most everything. It was time for him to do the modification! When I got it back it was like a different horn - the rotor worked fine, the third valve did not pop out and there were intonation issues that were resolved. The CB-50/G-50 was a good horn but Lee has made it into a great horn. Bob Rusk wanted this to be the resurgence of an American tuba, Lee Stofer has continued that and made it better!

[tylerferris1213]

Thank you for a more definitive story. I saved the link so it can be referenced in the future!

[GC]

Thanks, Lee. That corrects a lot of wrong ideas I had about those horns.

[tubazach07]

Lee stofers CB50 are amazing tubas! I consider myself very fourtinate to have purchased a used CB50 that Lee was selling and that he restored to the specs of his current Stofer tubas. I was looking for a lighter tuba(due to groin injury) that I could play that could still hold down a full size band.. This tuba does that and soo much more. It’s really easy to play and not an air hog. Pitches are very easy to move, valve action is fast and quiet and best of all it has a beautiful American tuba sound. The ergonomics are perfect for me and I don’t feel pain or discomfort when performing. I honestly wish I had found this tuba earlier in my career.