Letter G on B&S leadpipe receiver

[bort]

The receiver on my PT6 has the letter "G" at the very end, before the serial number.

Any guess what it means?

Picture to come...

[shinytuba7]

All my answers are guesses:

-Gold brass?
-Maybe where it was made begins with a G?
-Great?

[bort]

My best guess is "groß" (German for "large")

Also interesting to me, but perhaps not uncommon, the valve casings (and parts) are all stamped with numbers 21 through 25... to keep all the parts straight.

A few other random marks and letters too, and every slide and part on the valve block is stamped with "22", to keep all of the right parts together. (Again, maybe this is not unusual!)

Always fun to see all of the manufacturing marks on tubas.

[windshieldbug]

It means that Gerhard assembled the tuba...

[Robert Tucci]

Bort,

At the time your present instrument was made, there were six truly excellent craftrsmen who built what became one of the world`s finest and most respected lines of F and CC-tubas, the PT series. Each used a letter or a number, a matter of keeping track of production, also of personal pride in their work. We once had a vintage F-tuba at the factory for overhaul. One of the men who made and repaired key sets had the set off the instrument, noticed his personal code number on the underside of the key bar and remarked: "Oh, this is a set I made when the instrument was new.". Pride.

There were differences in the instruments simply because they were made by different people. In general though, there were those who specialized on CC-tubas, or on F-tubas. Some musicians requested "a letter G" or a "number 3" tuba, not knowing exactly what the reference was. Much changed at "B & S", not the quality though which is superb. There are no "Made by..." code numbers on the instruments now. Of course, everything is registered by serial number.

Hartmut Geilert assembled your instrument. He is long since retired: a great tuba maker.

Bob Tucci

[bort]

Hi Bob -- thank you so much for this information and these details. That name sounded familiar, and I realized you had sent me some other information previously about the factory and the tuba-makers who worked there (including Hartmut Geilert). So interesting and unexpected to get such detailed history of the instrument. Thank you!

[cjk]

That is way cool.