Antique Musical Instruments/Old "The Buescher" True Tone Tuba

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Expert: - 2/9/2010


Question

The instrument
Hi Kenton;

    I was just recently given a very old tuba from a member of my church. The tuba was made in Elkhart Indiana, and the engraving states " The Buescher Elkhart IND USA." I am pretty sure this was well before Conn bought them out. On the middle valve it has the numbers 207220 LP and on the lower portion of the middle valve "True Tone Trademark Registered"
 I will upload some pictures so you can have a better glance at the instrument, but hopefully you can tell me a little about the history of this instrument and possibly when it dates around. Thank you very much for your time and expertise.
Sincerely,
Joshua Fehskens

Answer
It appears that you have a nice old Eb tuba from 1926.  LP means that it will play in tune with modern instruments.  It was made when the Buescher company was in its prime.  Eb tubas were still a popular choice for the bass instrument in bands at that time, and were still common in bands through the 1960s when their popularity began to wain.  The Eb horn has a more melodic sound than the BBb basses of today.  

Antique Musical Instruments

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Kenton Scott

Expertise

Please note: My area is BRASS instruments, not other wind, string or percussion instruments. I will provide information on antique, obscure and out of production BRASS instruments. 1) Please don't ask for evaluations, I'll not provide them on this site. 2) I am often asked very similar questions, so I'd invite you to first check on Horn-u-Copia.net. Much of the information I have garnered about this topic, I have posted on this WEB site.

Experience

I perform in several historical bands, have informally researched the area, repair brass instruments, and operate a Forum dedicated to the topic at http://horn-u-copia.net

Education/Credentials
B.S. Ed, M.S.

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