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I have a nice Elkhart (Buescher) upright three-valve tuba. I have not done much playing on it but since I'm selling it I gave it a good workout with the
tuner this morning. Seems like the horn is about 5 cents low. I had it warmed up nicely but with the tuning slide in it is low.

The horn has been professionally cleaned and has no major damage. It looks like a "step-up" nicely made instrument with a satin finish and gold wash 22' bell. I don't think this is low-pitch. It's hard to trace Elkhart Band Instrument serial numbers. #246078 to determine how old it is.

The horn is well cared for and in great condition. I can tell some played it for 15-20 years so you would think the pitch had some kind of work-around.

There is plenty of length on the tuning slides to shorten if that becomes a needed option.

Any ideas or remedies are appreciated.

Tim

Not a remedy but a commiseration -- the Bueschers of that vintage that I have owned have all been much more comfortable playing around A=438 than 440. Short of playing with a shallower mouthpiece or cutting the main bugle at some point, I'm not sure what other solutions there are.

Oh man. That's purty. I wish I could grab it. Anyway, my Eb is low too. About halfway between D and Eb. Have been trying to figure this out also. I honestly think there were some smaller mps back when they made these things. Is the reciever on the small side too....?

Those main slide ferrules could probably be shortened down to a quarter of an inch. A lot of the mouthpieces that I've seen made during that time are not as deep as most of them that seem to be used these days.

' cool tuba

No advice other than, I typically find that helleberg II style mouthpieces (Sellmansberger version, Schilke, and 30H) tend to run slightly higher / sharper than other stuff I usually play.

Pauvog1 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2024 6:51 pm No advice other than, I typically find that helleberg II style mouthpieces (Sellmansberger version, Schilke, and 30H) tend to run slightly higher / sharper than other stuff I usually play.

I think that's correct. In the past, I had some Chinese knockoff of a PT (Dillon eBay offering long ago) that was obviously an HbII inside shape, and it would play barely flat tubas up to pitch. (I just remembered that - as Paul reminded me.)

I will probably let the next owner shorten the tuning slides. I calculated 20 cents is about 1 inch on the tuning slide.
Also, I tried my Bobo solo piece - it did help considerably.

tj

Sadly, I spent $2500 on a lathe several months ago and been to busy to mess with it. I have lots of mouthpieces that are dying to become sacrificial lambs for this tuba.

Seems like the holidays are always a perfect time to piddle.

tj

I have a couple Beuscher mouthpeices and they have one thing in common - very shallow!

Was someone looking for a flat tuba?

windshieldbug wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:06 am Was someone looking for a flat tuba?

When I saw the title of the original thread this exactly what I thought of!

I remember back when I was teaching (80’s?), I got a catalog from a company, I don’t remember the name of it, that offered a service they called a “flat finale”. Let’s say you’re a high school band kid and you DON’T want to keep playing after graduation. For a price, you could send this company your instrument and they would put it under an industrial hydraulic press. I imagine kind of like the one that smashed the robot in the “Terminator” movie. They promised that any pats- keys, etc. - that came off would be soldered back in approximately the correct places. Then they would frame it as wall art and send it back to you.

F.W.A. would have been another appropriate name/acronym for that gaggle of imbeciles ^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^y^h^h^u^h^h^h^h company . . . :-) :-)

Stryk wrote: ↑Sat Dec 07, 2024 4:29 pm I have a couple Beuscher mouthpeices and they have one thing in common - very shallow!

I would be very interested to know some dimensions on those mouthpieces if you have a way to measure them. Very curious.... thanks.

I know this isn't the for sale forum, but I have a friend who may want to morph to tuba, and he is happiest with three top valves, pretty, and a shallow cup. So I would ask, via PM if you prefer, how much you want for it, if it's not already gone.