Posted by Rick Denney on November 06, 2001 at 16:09:47:
My wife had been invited to an anniversary celebration, along with her mother, but my name wasn't on the invitation. She felt bad and asked if she should call her friend who was hosting the celebration to get me on the list, but I told here "No, he is trying to hold down costs and it would be rude to bring more people than those listed." She saw through that in about a millisecond, but granted me a reprieve anyway.
Thus, I finally had a free day to wander up to Baltimore to check out David Fedderly's new store. I called my wife's uncle, and he drove three hours from his home to meet me there. He had just gotten his Besson back from the shop, having had the valves replated, and wanted me to see it.
He had just bought a King sousaphone, and liked the big, warm sound it made versus the saxhorn-like sound of the old Besson. Therefore, I wanted him to play the used 2341 that BB had listed on their site. But I also wanted to check the store out for myself.
I started with that King, just to make sure it was a player. I was surprised: It had a warm, open sound that was better than your usual King. And your usual King ain't bad. So, I handed it to my uncle for his enjoyment, and started working my way down the line. I tried out a St. Pete. It wasn't a bad playing horn at all, and it is reminiscent of a very old style of instrument, with a big bell throat and a tiny flare. But it had quirks, though I wasn't taking notes at the time, and the valves were not wonderful. The nickel plating wasn't bad, though. I handled it carefully.
I also played some big tubas, including the Johnson-cut Holton that we've heard about recently, and a Holton with a Hirsbrunner bell (or was that the same instrument?). Nothing wowed me, but the Holtons are little outside my ability envelope, like the 2165.
There was a Rusk-cut frankentuba with a Besson 2-20 bugle mated to what is probably a Conn 5J valve body. The result is a CC tuba, about the size of a Yamaha 621. Very strange. It gives you a classic small Besson sound, however, with front action valves. He also had a big Besson compensating BBb that surprised me by how well it played.
BB has a bevy of Conn 52 and 56J's, plus a number of Getzen G-50's. Those Getzens are nice, nice instruments. A friend of mine has repiped the fifth-valve tubing to provide a much wider tuning slide, and wired the fifth valve so that it normally routes the air through the valve tubing. It makes a BBb tuba with a really good open-bugle C by pressing only the thumb trigger. I can't really think of any reason not to like that setup, so I tried a G-50 with the fifth valve held down just to see how a stock example would play. The result was surprisingly good. I also tried out a new 2341, and thought better of it Saturday than the last one I played.
Meanwhile, my uncle was trying out a Meinl-Weston 18 and a 25, plus a Cerveny 4/4. The Cerveny was just like my old Sanders, and played the same and sounded the same. The Meinl-Weston was a little more disciplined, with notes slotting a little more securely and a powerful sound that suggested dark in the sense of low rather than deep. My uncle really liked it, but looked a little shaken when he saw the price tag. I vastly preferred the 25 to the 18, and I seem to not like the smallish contrabasses that much for some reason.
We then went back to that somewhat battered King, and I thought it held up rather well compared to the other horns we'd played. So did my uncle, and after certain consultations of the sort I was not privy to I was asked if I might be able to drive back up there and pick it up. I did, and it's at my house for this week.
David's store is a big warehouse. He has a carpeted instrument display and play area bounded by the sales counter in the middle of the store, an office/lesson are at the front, and facilities at the back. These consume half the store, runing down its length. The other side is a storage and loading dock area, where boxes and cases are stored, backed up by a large storage rack, which encloses a repair area. The ceiling is about 25 feet high, and the room has a cavernous reverberation but without much annoying echo. It is really fun to play in that area, because you get a real sense of the sound of the tuba coming back to you.
David had been playing his new big York, recently back from the plater, in his front office, and he brought it out for me to play right before we left. It's everything you expect a 6/4 York to be, and once again I was thinking that now would be a good time to win the lottery, heh, heh. Some orchestral player will get a good one.
Now for the King questions:
Bringing home this tuba has given me a chance to compare a King old-style 2341 to my York Master. The King has a big, warm sound, but not as big or as warm as the York. It also displayed a marked elastic vibration of the entire tuba body when playing notes in the low Bb range. When held on a tuba rest, and struck with the palm of the hand to ring it, it vibrates for quite some time in that range. I can feel the sympathetic vibration in my hands when I play notes there. It's the first time I've ever felt that much vibration in a tuba. But if it affected the sound, I could not tell it. Have others noticed this with their 2341's? All the braces on this instrument are solid.
What is the difference between an 1141 and a 2341? This one has the double-looped third-valve tubing that I had always associated with the earlier model. The serial number is in the middle 300,000's, which I think puts in around 45 or 50 years old. That looks right, too. The instrument's upright bell has been crunched, probably twice, and rolled out. It's still got a lot of little dents here and there, but nothing significant.
Intonation on the instrument is excellent, except for the fifth partial. With the mouthpieces I tried, alternate valve fingerings only help a little bit there. Those notes were about 15 cents flat, while everything else was within five cents. The tuba seems perfectly in tune with the main slide pulled about an inch and all the valve slides shoved all the way home. Were the Kings designed for slides pushed all the way in? The top loop on the first valve slide is fixed, which really surprised me, especially considering that the third-valve tubing had three slides on it.
This, a question from my uncle: Does anyone have a recording bell for a 2341 that they can sell cheap?
All in all, this is just about a perfect instrument for a player with not too much experience. It plays easily, with good dynamic range. The low range pops without too much effort. The notes slot easily, and with a couple of exceptions the intonation is nearly perfect. The sound is full and warm, and this particular instrument seems resonant and not too stuffy.
Now, for the punch line, and to reward you for reading this long post:
David showed us two Eb sousaphones that he would really like to sell, and for which he is asking a small price. They were, no kidding, flocked with red velvet material. A red, fuzzy sousaphone?
My uncle said it best: "That looks like something you'd see in a whorehouse"
Rick "who did not buy the Eb sousaphone" Denney