Re: Re: Cat pages: Conn low brass ca. 1985


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Posted by Klaus on October 02, 2002 at 08:35:09:

In Reply to: Re: Cat pages: Conn low brass ca. 1985 posted by Steve Marcus on October 02, 2002 at 07:08:24:

This instrument is a York Master BBb made by Böhm & Meinl in Bavaria-Germany sometime between WWII (or rather about 1950) and about 1970.

It is very clearly neither a US York nor an equivalent of a Yorkbrunner or the Nirschl (the later company being the successor of B&M). After a long and battered career in the US school system my YM is not even a new York. But the lay-out of the YM wrapping amazingly corresponds to the front piston pre-WWII York CC's and BBb's as they are presented in catalogue illustrations.

I bought it after sending e-mails to a number of US tuba retailers. When I opened the box a the air-carrier's terminal for inspection, my mood went very blue and explosive at the same time. The freighting was OK, but the seller had cheated me badly by not telling how mistreated the instrument had been through its school years.

I was very disappointed, yet I started practising it as the valves actually worked. One night I to it to rehearsal in the small local concert band, and there it came to its right, as it could lay out some real foundation. Later on I took it to a more ambitious out of town brass band, where it equally and easily proved itself being a very good player in all aspects of sound, intonation, dynamic range, and blend. Clearly outdoing the Besson 4-comper, that the band wanted me to play for visual reasons (I didn't accept to do that, as out of the military the musical potentials should outrank the looks).

The YM has a bore of .750 and a front bell of 22". It is a sibling of the YM that Rick Denney now owns.

Aside from the bells and and the much better shape of RD's YM due to the much more responsible ownership history of the latter instrument there is one more difference:

The wrapping of the 4th valve tubing of my YM tells, that this instrument was intended for marching. The tubing mostly runs inside the "mainframe" with the tuning slide sitting next to the bottom slide of the 1st valve tubing.

The 4th valve wrapping of RD's YM mostly sits as a huge loop following the backside outline of the mainframe. My guess is that such a wrap would have made the low range of my YM even more open.

Klaus


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