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Here's a bunch of photos of a tuba my parents bought at a junkstore. It is a King, made sometime before 1915 for the US Navy. It's seen some abuse. A bunch of the silver plate appears to have corroded off. There were splits (3 -from frozen water while outside in junkyard) which have now been fixed, a new tuning slide made, numerous braces soldered and a new bottom bow guard put on. Apparently the shop found a new one, I'm not sure what model it was designed for, but it fit! From the below photos, I bet it was for the new King. It was in the shop for about 9 months, going in just after the summer rush began. I've been playing it since the end of April '02, thanks to Marty Erickson who brought it from the repair shop in Michigan to Penn State Univ. Below are some new pictures.
The horn sounds great!! Definitely richer than the 1960 King I was
playing.
Much better in the low end and the high end too! As for
mouthpieces,
I liked a Bach18 mouthpiece first, then a RM-1 but still wanted a
little
more power and depth to the sound. Went to WW & BW in South
Bend
and with the help of Roger Lewis and my brother's (bass trombonist)
ears
did a "blind" test of a bunch of mouthpieces. I left with a
PT-88.
Awesome power, but man does it suck the air out of you.
12/05 Update. I've now switched to the Giddings and Webster line of
Mouthpieces (Stainless Steel and Titanium). I got my first ever
Tuba lessons from Ivan G. when he was a Grad. student here at
PSU. Great guy! I was using his Bayamo model on the King,
but have now switched to the Alan Baer CC model IN TITANIUM. I
tried several models back to back in stainless and titanium and clearly
prefered the titanium in each case so I took the plunge. This
summer I took the horn in to Matt Walters at Dillon Music in NJ for a
chem clean and some tweaking. He also vented the 1st valve for me
so I can easily pull the slide to tune the D below the staff. I
also had him realign the leadpipe for better ergonomics and also as an
excuse to check out some poor soldering where the leadpipe enters the
cluster. He found an internal dent and some solder blobs.
He cleaned all that up and I was floored when I played it. It was
like playing a new horn. Thank you Matt!
2/09 Update: New horn in the house! I am now the proud
owner of a Miraphone Norwegian Star Eb tuba. Man what a
horn! Another G & W mouthpiece of course, this time the Baer
F, in stainless steel.
Bands I play in:
State
College Area Municipal Band
The Bavarian
Stompers
The Summit City Saints
If you have any comments or questions, drop me a line.
Join us for the 2009 State College TubaChristmas (click for details)
Philip pjj2@psu.edu
My King versus the new King 2341
Click on the photos for a bigger picture
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When I picked up the tuba, Matt Walters the
tuba
repair Guru at Dillons said it was one of the best BBb tubas he'd
played.
He said a couple of his regulars gave the horn a toot and were very
impressed.
I briefly played the new King and I have to say I liked my horn
better.
Matt then brought out the new Miraphone 1291 BBb for me to try.
It
was love at first blow. Both Matt and my wife at the other end of
the room thought at the same time, yup that's the horn for him
(me).
Played one again at WW & BW, man the horn is awesome.
Hopefully
I'll be able to afford one someday.
My King versus King 1241 ('60)
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Latest Addition - a King Euphonium, also made for the Navy with a
serial
number only 125 higher than the tuba!!. Needs a 4th valve and
some
repairs to the leadpipe. I've made a bypass so it plays as a 3
valved
horn - not bad!! Bore is 0.590 in. and the bell diameter is 11
in.
 close to scale from merged photos |
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Here's the before pictures of the old King
Rear
view 1
Front
view 1 - note dent by my dad's chin, on tuba, not my dad
Front
view 2
Split
1 back of upper bow
Split
2 front view
Split
2 rear view
Split
3 on upper branch where hand goes
Tuning
slide
Valve
section
Valves
- inside
Bell
top view
Bell
front view
Olds?
sousa neck and bits #1
Olds?
sousa neck and bits #2