Guessing the Pitch of my Sousaphone

[MichaelBavarian]

Hello, I just bought a used Sousaphone. I am not a Tuba-Player, so I basically do know nothing about Tubas. I play the Euphonium. I found this instrument for a quite cheap price so I bought it to fool around a little bit.

I am unsure of its pitch! It seems that the standard pitch of a Sousaphone is BBb, but I suspect this one to be in Eb. Why? It has a slightly smaller bell (ca. 58 cm) than new Sousaphones currently sold (66cm). It weighs also less (9,8 kg) than a new sousaphone (around 14 kgs), despite being full brass. BUT a powerseller on Ebay told me that this is not a Eb-Sousa, as it has too many wrappings (= the tube length is too long). He suspects just a smaller BBb.

Of course I also tried to use a tuner. The lowest natural tone that I was able to produce was indeed a b, the next higher natural tones being f, b, d. As I am not a tuba player, I am not sure if I made this right.

What do you think? How can I be sure? Thanks so much for your help.

[2nd tenor]

Looking at the length of the valve slides my guess is that it’s a BBb instrument, however the best way to check is to play it and that is what you have done.

The Bb note you got sounds like the second partial with the F, Bb and D being the third, fourth and fifth respectively. I think that’s correct but if not then someone here will doubtless say what is - some good and well informed folk here.

You might like to go up and down the harmonics on this Tuba and your Euphonium, the two should be an octave apart.

[bloke]

...fourth and fifth respectively...

...and irrespective of the firth of forth, obviously.

[York-aholic]

BBb

[Three Valves]

If you can pop a decent gooseneck on that, it could work out well.

I believe it is BBb and made of Chinesium.

I also prefer the smaller bells.

[bloke]

Skinny California Olds B flat sousaphones are quite sought after.

[Three Valves]

Skinny California Olds B flat sousaphones are quite sought after.

Even better, I thought those braces looked a little skimpy for a vintage USA model.

[bloke]

I think it's a Chinese sousaphone, but I was just saying that an old American thing that's similar is sought after.

[MichaelBavarian]

It is branded as "Roland Meinl Germany". The story - according to my trusted repairman - goes like this: The guy was a brass instrument builder in Franconia/Germany who imported parts from Asia and assembled them hisself in his shop. He was one of the first ones in Germany to do so. So the chinesium guess is correct, at least for a part.

He was quite passionate for low brass but did not have very good margins on his instruments. His sons took over the company, concentrated themselves on percussion instruments and are way more successful than the old man. His instruments nevertheless are still surfacing on the used market in Germany.

He also had a lawsuit going on with a builder named Rudolf Meinl, who builds quite expensive handmade tubas. Rudolf did not like that Roland sometimes marked his instruments "R. Meinl", thus diluting his brand.

[bloke]

I'm always extremely skeptical of "parts from China, but assembled in the west" claims.