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EEb /F Besson Tuba - New Standard 1963 The
Besson Class A New Standard F Tubas (Model 4067) were custom made only
by special order. This tuba was one of a batch of 3 model 4067s ordered
by
the head office on 30 December 1963. This particular tuba was made to
specificatiobns developed in collaboration with John Fletcher in the
early 1960s. In 1964, John Fletcher was principal tuba in the BBC
Symphony at age of 22. In 1966 he joined the London Symphony
Orchestra as well as the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. He died
prematurely in 1968. Subsequebntly, this tuba belonged to Stuart
Roebuck, former principal Tuba of the Halle Orchestra, and during the
1990s it was owned by the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
where it was locked away in a cupboard and hardly played.
It is
30 1/2 inches tall - about 3/4 the size and weight of the Besson
981/982 EEb Sovereigns and has a smaller 13 1/2" bell. It has the 3+1
valve configuration and is fully compensating. The valve cluster
and bore seems to be
identical to its bigger brothers. I bought it on eBay from a seller in
the UK who kindly organized having it restored and re-lacquered by
Besson before shipping it to me. At the same time, I had a custom
tuning crook made it so it could be played in EEb. I retained
the original F crook so the tuba remains fully convertible. This tuba
blows easily with almost the depth and timbre of its big
brothers. It has certainly saved me a lot of back strain, and it
is perfectly suited for playing in quintet
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