Re: King UB tubas


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Posted by Greg Crider on April 03, 2001 at 15:02:51:

In Reply to: King UB tubas posted by Joe Ellis on April 03, 2001 at 13:08:44:

This horn actually seems to be a throwback to an older design, although King (or UMI) hasn't bothered to answer my queries on the subject.

In 1968, I went to Transylvania Music Camp in Brevard, NC. My tuba teacher, John Taylor, didn't like the Conn 20J that I had brought, and he dug out an ancient horn that belonged to the opera department that had been used as a prop. After a good bath and a lot of metal polish, this disgusting solid-black piece of garbage turned out to be a beautiful old 3-valve matte silver BBb King tuba that looked almost identical to the pictures of the new horn.

The valve section was a bit different from the new horn's. The third valve slide went almost straight down and hit the chair if I leaned forward, so I developed the habit of sitting on the edge of my seat with the horn resting on my legs. The sound of the horn, with the oversized bell so close overhead, was strong, deep, resonant, and had lots of carrying power. The horn was so short and squat that my sectionmate called it "the Mushroom". The one real problem with it was the problem that all older Kings seemed to have: the 1st and 3rd valve slides were so long that 1st valve C and all 2/3 combinations were terribly flat.

It was Mr. Taylor's opinion that the horn was pre-WWII. I have not seen the horn or one exactly like it before or since, but there may still be a few of them out there.


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