Ladies and Gentlemen - The Bessophone!

[iiipopes]

Update: recently a friend of mine borrowed The Bessophone to play a brass quintet concert. I attended the concert. That was the first time I had actually gotten to hear it out front. WOW! I will put its tone and intonation up against any tuba in the world, from a $100 garage sale find, to any of these $30,000+ "custom" tubas. Its core, breadth, intonation and foundation were even better than I had hoped for, and provided that warm, enveloping, but not overpowering, foundation that absolutely locked the rest of the quintet in for a great concert. It was quite a pleasure, because, of course, you can never tell sitting under the bell exactly what it does out front.

[iiipopes]

I forgot to add in the initial post, which I was reminded of when I read the thread on soldering coins to the paddles, that my tech and I, a couple of years before we changed the bells, custom tailored each of the paddles. He took the paddles off, aligned the tangs for breadth and height, then we resoldered the paddles for length and finger fit.

Then we adjusted the angle of the leadpipe to accommodate my slight overbite.

Now, just as with tailored clothing, I do not have to "fiddle" with anything. I just play. And play. And play. Everything fits me perfectly. Yes, if I ever had to sell the horn, that might drop the price a couple hundred because the next player would need to have the paddles and receiver re-aligned for his/her personal ergonomics, but the return on gigs in the meantime is definitely worth it.

[Three Valves]

I love it when a plan comes together!!

[iiipopes]

Further update: I mentioned this in another souzy thread, but never brought it over here. The Reynolds 'glass souzy and I never melded. So I sold it. My tech had all the parts to a Selmer Signet 'glass souzy - the "poor man's 36K" and he put it all together for me for a great deal to free up space in his morgue for the more common makes and models. I like the way it blows better, probably from the years with the Bessophone, the .730 bore Besson 3-valve comp I used to own, and the various other .734 Conn souzys I have owned or played otherwise over the years.

[iiipopes]

The continuing saga: I got an offer on the Selmer 'glass souzy I couldn't refuse, so it left. Down the road, as I may need a souzy for outdoors or other gigs, I know where to borrow a Conn Cavalier. I played it years ago before I got the Bessophone, and it is quietly slumbering in a good spot, ready for action on a few minute's notice to oil valves and grease slides. It has already had the conversion done to the upper first valve loop for intonation, which, with the permission of the owners, I had done years ago - the first souzy I had this done to.

[shinytuba7]

iiipopes, the pictures seemed to have been removed from this thread. Would someone interested in seeing the aforementioned horn be able to find pictures of it somewhere else?

[shinytuba7]

extremely truncated summary:

Besson/B&H and Yamaha 201/321 bells fit on Miraphone 186 tubas.

Awesome, thank you, bloke and elephant, for your replies. Bits of information that I wanted to know!

[iiipopes]

Further update: I got an offer on the Bundy/Selmer Signet I could not refuse and sold it.

[iiipopes]

Repost of the Bessophone pix lost some time ago:

BessophoneFront.JPG

BessophoneRear.jpg

BessonBell.jpg

[anotherjtm2]

Thanks for the new pictures.

That tuning slide is loooong. I have a Yamaha 201 bell on my BBb 186, and it needs a longer slide, but only by a couple inches (on each leg). And it does indeed help with the flat 5th partial

[iiipopes]

186/188 fifth partial pitches (B-flat or C) are pretty squishy (flexible, without losing any resonance when flexing them) anyway.

With my 50-year-old C 186, the only 5th partial pitch that is flat is D (requiring #1 slide all the way in, pretty heroic "lipping", or 4th valve).
The other 5th partial pitches are-or-nearly-are spot on, requiring no "squishing". I suppose (??) this is sorta like the 1st valve C on the Conn 14K sousaphone...except that C is much worse than my D.

Yeah...It's obvious that Miraphone - in 1969 - was aware of the 1st-valve D issue. as the #1 circuit is just short enough (in all the way) to address it.

(As I ONLY really have to push #1 IN for in-the-staff D...and ONLY have to pull out #5 for really-low D, I've imagined a wild left-hand-operated contraption that - when depressed - SIMULTANEOUSLY pushes in #1 AND pulls out #5. )

Bloke - always working the "problem"!