Cool find: "Adolf Oehms / Hannover" F tuba

[arpthark]

Had a very nice time this weekend picking this up from Sasha Johnson, who was able to cart it from Montreal to New England on behalf of one of his students at McGill. Also honked out duets, chatted for an hour, and got to try out his new B&S 795, which was a super nice instrument -- a bit better than the one I played at BBC about a year ago.

Anyway, this is a silver-plated, four-valve F tuba marked "Adolf Oehms - Hannover." Adolf Oehms owned a music shop in Hannover and this is likely a stencil instrument. According to Tom McCaslin, who used to own this tuba, "it seems it was made between 1920 and 1940 in Mainz by Max Enders or possibly in Markneukirchen." The brace feet definitely seem Alexander-y to me, so maybe the Mainz connection makes sense. Valves are nice, rotors not worn at all, beautiful sound. Extra large Alex-ish receiver engulfs Euro shanks, but they do work in the horn (it is much bigger than the large shank on my Alex F). The bell is 15" and the bore is 18mm / .708". The size of the body is about the same as a Miraphone 180 or MW 2182.

I have a Miraphone valve here of the same bore, but I hate to start hacking and slashing to add a fifth and mess up the really nice (what I am assuming is original) silver plate.

[York-aholic]

Very nice!

[Stryk]

It does look very AlexanderISH - if not totally an Alexander. My BBb 163 from the first half of the last century has the same braces, only the ends are pointed and the clockwork springs look very similar.

[arpthark]

It does look very AlexanderISH - if not totally an Alexander. My BBb 163 from the first half of the last century has the same braces, only the ends are pointed and the clockwork springs look very similar.

My CC 163 is also from that era (likely 1930s) and the brace feet are identical to this F tuba, but the middle filigree is a little bit different. It's interesting yours have pointed ends; mine are flat and sort of flattened off on the side like this one.

I looked at some pics of Max Enders tubas on Horn-u-Copia and it doesn't really seem too similar to this one, so I really have no idea.

I'm probably going to take it to a klezmer gig next week, and after that we will see what I can do with it.

[MiBrassFS]

Clipboard Mar 3, 2025 at 9.24 AM.jpeg (68.28 KiB) Viewed 2919 times

[Stryk]

It does look very AlexanderISH - if not totally an Alexander. My BBb 163 from the first half of the last century has the same braces, only the ends are pointed and the clockwork springs look very similar.

My CC 163 is also from that era (likely 1930s) and the brace feet are identical to this F tuba, but the middle filigree is a little bit different. It's interesting yours have pointed ends; mine are flat and sort of flattened off on the side like this one.

I looked at some pics of Max Enders tubas on Horn-u-Copia and it doesn't really seem too similar to this one, so I really have no idea.

I'm probably going to take it to a klezmer gig next week, and after that we will see what I can do with it.

You are correct - I went back and looked! The two newer ones are pointed - the old one is flat - EXACTLY like these. Oops....

[jonesbrass]

That’s purdy!