One for the TNFJ

[TubaSailor]

Can anyone give me an educated estimate on the age of this instrument? - It' marked Herbert Gronitz, Hamburg, and the 1st and 2nd slides are about .750 bore, 3rd is .770, fourth is 0.787 and the main is graduated from .787 to .825 - The bell is 18", and the overall length is somewhere around 41 to 41.5". The horn weighs about 21 pounds, so it's substantial. I'm guessing it was made for the German Military bands ??? It does seem to be pitched higher than a modern instrument - or else it was intended to be played with tuning bits. The mouthpiece receiver is about .590 at the very end. - one interesting thing, the mouthpipe is only soldered to the bell on a small brace-type pad, not in a long solder joint. It does have a big, gorgeous (World-class?? ) sound.

It's been sitting in my late father's workshop for about 30 years, and I'll probably be selling it soon if anyone is interested.

Tubasailor

[imperialbari]

How much higher than A=440Hz is it pitched? To my knowledge there has been no pitch reform in Germany since 1920, even if there has been some sliding upwards of pitch tendencies since then.

The photo is of a far too low resolution to make any specific observations.

Klaus

[TubaSailor]

Sorry about the picture quality - I had to reduce it drastically to make it upload to Tubenet - there are better quality and resolution pics here: http://s1187.photobucket.com/albums/z387/TubaSailor/" target="_blank - as to contacting Gronitz directly - I thought I'd give this forum a shot first, since I don't have much info - not even a serial number, and I thought that the horn might be of general interest since I've never seen another quite like it.

TubaSailor

[imperialbari]

Thanks for the much better photos!

Herbert Gronitz opened his shop in Hamburg in 1933, which limits the manufacturing to well after 1920. That makes the higher pitch even more puzzling.

As far as I can see, the two top slides are for the 1st and 3rd valve loops, which is pretty normal. And then it looks like the 4th loop only has a slide just above the main tuning slide, whereas the top of that loop runs below the top bow. I don’t remember seeing that in rotary tubas before.

The entry angle to and the exit angle from the valve block being 135° is mostly seen in B&S rotary tubas.

The S-links rather would point towards an early Gronitz version.

The 4th loop slide and the graduated bore through the valve block are not very common features in rotary BBb tubas. And then there is the odd pitch. Any specifics whether it is A=459Hz or A=466Hz?

Please post on what Gronitz tells you.

Klaus