Ever received a surprise tuba delivery?!

[Dave Detwiler]

Hi all - I received a surprise tuba delivery the other day, and it stunned me. But then I opened it, and got happily sucked into researching the history of its original owner. I've blogged about it here: http://tubapastor.blogspot.com/2022/02/ ... -tuba.html

If you love 124 year old tubas, and extraordinary stories about ordinary tubists, you'll enjoy the read!

Surpise tuba delivery.jpg (131.94 KiB) Viewed 1554 times

[Three Valves]

You don't send me tubas
You don't sing me love songs
You hardly talk to me anymore
When you come through the door
At the end of the day

[York-aholic]

You and your research always amaze me.

[prairieboy1]

Thank you for posting this! It is a very interesting story and you have nice friends as well!

[TheBerlinerTuba]

Thank you Dave, wonderfully though work

[bloke]

I commented elsewhere that I have had one experience with one of these older large Conn E-flat tubas, and believe that I found that this older narrower-looking seemingly-taller design seems to offer better overtone tuning than the Conn monster E-flats which were made later on into the Depression era.
I sold a Conn E-flat body of this shape - along with a never-used Willson E-flat front-action valveset - to a project-builder.

[cktuba]

Wow... just... wow.... AWESOME!!! What a gift and the fantastic research into the history is phenomenal. What a sad ending to what was an (otherwise) uplifting story. Thanks for sharing this.

[Dave Detwiler]

Thanks, guys - I truly enjoy digging into the history behind things, esp. the tuba!

And hey, while I've got you, what's your preferred "recipe" for polishing up a heavily tarnished vintage instrument?

Years ago, this was recommended:

1. Wipe it down with Tarnx (outside, where the smell won't kill you!)
2. Rinse it well, then clean it gently with a baking soda and water paste.
3. Rinse thoroughly and dry, and then polish it with Tarni-shield or Hagerty's.

Does that still sound about right? Here's how tarnished the horn is (and you can see it's had some work done!):

1898 Conn BBb - tarnished.jpg (97.08 KiB) Viewed 1405 times

[Three Valves]

Chrisfield, MD is a little remote, I’ve been meaning to go there.

My wife and I lived in Kensington, MD for several years. It’s just up the road from where we are now.

I’d like to see if his church is still there. (Crisfield)

It is!!

https://www.facebook.com/firstcrisfield/

[Dave Detwiler]

Chrisfield, MD is a little remote, I’ve been meaning to go there.

My wife and I lived in Kensington, MD for several years.

He and his family were living in Kensington after he retired in 1925. He passed three years later.

[tofu]

.

[Three Valves]

I did learn something new - that the Klan was against organized labor - did not know that. I wonder why.

Stalinists ruined the organized labor movement.

They didn't oppose labor/laborers so much as they opposed Commies.

To this day, Usual Suspects accuse anyone that opposes their Liberty destroying policies of being a Neo-Klansman.

[hrender]

It's got very nice proportions.

[Dave Detwiler]

What an odd life. The marriage to the woman at the rail depot in the women's sitting room (I assume bathroom). Was this an arranged marriage? Very odd. All the moving around every couple years - especially way back then. He never seemed to last very long as a pastor at any one place. Makes you wonder if he left on his own accord or was handed his walking papers. And then the whole Klan association. That's just bizarre - how did he square that with his religious beliefs. I did learn something new - that the Klan was against organized labor - did not know that. I wonder why.

That is an interesting shape for a Conn - almost more like Besson of the time. How does it actually play?

An odd life, to be sure - esp. that wedding! But as for the moving around from pastorate to pastorate, that seems fairly normal for that time period. Just for fun, I reached out to all of the churches that he pastored to see if the current pastor would be interested in a bit of that church's history, and a few have responded.

One, from the very first Baptist church Killgore pastored, back in 1901, got back to me and sent me this photo that is in the church lobby. You'll note that nobody lasted very long there!

Pastors of FBC of Olney, IL (Killgore is 1901).jpg (113.48 KiB) Viewed 1260 times

And as to how the tuba plays, not bad! It was very dirty, so I washed it up good, but it still sounds a bit stuffy on a few notes, and there are finger buttons missing, and one sticky valve. But I hope to have Matt Walters give it a look and see what we can do to get it into reasonable playing shape. It would be fun to bring to Tuba Christmas!

[humBell]

If memory serves (and it usually does until suddenly it doesn't...) the below picture is of a 1907 Conn offered by someone in Iowa on craigslist. A tubaforumer that i have mildly lost track of (well, i did say hi in January? so not really, but he was moving, and not 100% sure where he was moving to)



It bares a similar lay out, no?
(And whoever took your picture is much better at managing parallax!)

[Dave Detwiler]

It bares a similar lay out, no?
(And whoever took your picture is much better at managing parallax!)

Similar layout, for sure, but different engravings on the bell (mine are mostly flowers). Also, and this might be more of a matter of perspective due to the way the photo might distort the actual proportions, but it seems like the bell on that one sits shorter than on mine.

[humBell]

Scrolling between the two pics, i agree the bell looks shorter.

Might mean not all of the bell looking like it has more flare being camera angle issues.

(My impression more flare allows for a shorter bell to play the same pitch... not sure i ever did math to justify this)

The valve set is also at more of an angle with the body (and leadpipe) as well, affecting the spacing between valve loops a bit (at least i think they could be related)

As for the engraving, my memory seems to recall a dedication to a particular county on it, but it wasn't obvious what state.

It is probably not too far afield if you wish me to track it down and get a better look. That is also the before picture for the repairs.

[bort2.0]

Between those two tubas, you could have a full set of (mismatched) valve caps.

[Dave Detwiler]

Hi all - I've started the process of cleaning up this old monster. Here's the bell, where you can now really see the engraving of the previous owner's name - Rev. Robert Fansler Killgore!

1898 Conn tuba - cleaning up bell.jpg (139.81 KiB) Viewed 1178 times

[York-aholic]

That engraving is quite stunning! I can only imagine how much time went into that. You would think that the engraving department would be the bottleneck in the whole process.