About a tuba- He'p Me, He'p Me Pleeeeze

[bad_manors]

Hello all,

This might be a Malcolm question. But then again we might have another instrument person amongst this august group (how's that for sucking up?)
We just got a tuba to sell (kind of a long story along the lines of "hey you guys enjoy a challenge...").
The only maker's marks I can see is "Mastertone" on the bell and Besson 25 on the mouthpiece.
I'm kind of stumped here and must therefore rely on the kindness of...

Thanks
Brad

[shoplineca]

Brad,
Besson 25 is the make of the mouthpiece and 25 is (I assume) a size of the mouthpiece as set by Besson. A standard trumpet mouthpiece is a 7C, as an example. There should be a letter as well as one tells the width of the mouthpiece and the other tells the depth of the cup (at least that is how it is with trumpets).

The tuba you have will be either a BBb or an EEb or an F or CC instrument. It would be best to know that when selling it.

Mastertone is a name I am not familiar with for brass instruments except to suggest that someone has used a brand name used by Gibson to suggest that it is made by Gibson.

Generally Gibson used Mastertone with their banjos. Besson generally uses the name "Sovereign"

Good luck.

Malcolm

[bad_manors]

Hi Malcolm,

Thanks for that info. And you are right. A little/lot more due dilligence on my part is called for. Actually that's part of the fun of it for me. We've had a number of requests of late to handle the sale of some interesting stuff. But there's a really steep learning curve for some of it. A fair bit of it we politely decline.

I was kind of thrown by the Mastertone name because I'd known it to be a Gibson brand.

Do you happen to know any brass guys that might have a sense of an obscure brand?

Thanks

Brad

[shoplineca]

Brad
Many suppliers manufacture instruments in different brand names. As an example, I order a line of wind instruments under one of our brand names.

All of my guitars, amps and most other instruments I sell including pianos are also private lable instruments manufactured by select companies with one of the private lable names imprinted on them.

That being said, it is possible that the tuba that you have is simply that and little will be found out about it.

There is a slight possibility that Besson may have carried a Mastertone brand at one time so you could always email them and inquire. I did a product search for the name on their web site for Mastertone but came up empty-handed.

How old of an instrument do you believe this tuba to be?

For determining what key the tuba is in, you will need someone to play a specific note on the tuba (open, not pressing any of the valves) and find the corresponding note on the piano.

This is difficult for me to explain here but it will likely be the first and easiest note for the person to get a sound out of on the tuba.

Malcolm

[bad_manors]

Thanks Malcolm,

As per your suggestion, I sent an e-note off to Besson. As for the age, I'm stumped. The client remembers it being around the house for something on the order of 30 years but I think it's a fair bit older than that. The tuba is going to Moncton tomorrow to a musician of my acquaintance who was in agreement with your idea on determining the type. I'll offline you with any more info we get.


Brad