A. Heinel "Dresden Model Kaiser-Bass" Eb - info sought

[arpthark]

Just a bit of a post-mortem, if anyone is curious how this little German Eb tuba performed in its first concert in probably 50 or 60 years at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, KY:

With a very large Euro shank receiver but a tiny bore of .610" or so, it's kind of a paradox. I found it to be an extreme air hog, but the small bore meant that it was challenging to get a large/loud sound out of it. The end result was that I was doing a whole lot of work without a ton of sound to show for it. That said, I did the best I could without getting too blatty/splatty. I was using a Sellmansberger Imperial in it, but if the receiver were swapped out and a very shallow contrabass trombone mouthpiece were used instead, I think this tuba would make an excellent cimbasso substitute.

Playing a few marches and with a larger tuba section beside me, I decided to do the upper divisi on tunes like Stars & Stripes, which was fun.

What was not fun was intonation. I found that I had to ride the first valve slide pretty regularly and use 4th for Bb in the staff (otherwise about 30-40c sharp). D in the staff was also about 30-40c flat, mitigated somewhat by using 1+3.

Overall, I would rate it as "functional" and I am okay with it being kept in another state at my parents' house. Unfortunately, the Buescher helicon did not materialize for use on the horse-drawn bandwagon, but if I can get that working for next year, I will have something a bit beefier to play at the concert and on the parade wagon as well. As it were, I borrowed a 36K for the wagon.

[Mary Ann]

So how can such a small bore be an air hog? This is something I just don't get yet, what makes an air hog and what makes an effortless. Clearly it is not "just" bore size, although you'd think it would be. And not tube length, because this is an Eb.

[arpthark]

My guess: really large receiver/mostly cylindrical large bore long leadpipe. Just not a whole lot of resistance built into the first several inches of tuba meant that it took a lot of effort to play, not a lot different than buzzing a mouthpiece by itself. And the 12" bell and small bore meant that the overall ceiling for volume and roundness of tone is very low. Just a very odd little instrument.

[Kingconn]

I've got a small Conn 4-valve from 1914. I liked the sound of the horn but found it to be an air-hog. One day , just by chance , I tried a Yamaha 68 mouthpiece in it and that made all the difference in it. I've always used funnel shaped mouthpieces but a shallow bowl shaped was much more suited to it.