Crispy Kruspe

[arpthark]

A friend delivered this to me yesterday. It's a Kruspe Model 33 B-flat, string linkage, about 100 years old. I would say it is about the size of a Meinl-Weston 25 -- a large 4/4 or 5/4-sized tuba.

It has suffered a slew of backyard tuba repairs -- tons and tons of sloppy solder work -- and I would love to breathe new life into it. No idea how it plays, with the valves pretty much frozen. It has a tiny mouthpiece that is stuck in the receiver.

The wife and kid are going to be out of town for the next few days and I am going to use that time to do what I can to get the valves moving, slides and mouthpiece unstuck, before I take it to my repair guy for dent work and solder cleanup.

Here's some original ad copy (the horn pictured is not this one, but the larger Kaiserbass; however, the Model 33 listed is this tuba).

[DonO.]

There are some significant differences between the picture and your instrument: no kranz in the picture, the shape of the main tuning slide, and a mechanical linkage rather than string, with smaller shorter paddles. I know you said that the pictured tuba was a different model, but you wouldn’t think they would be making a completely different linkage system.

[arpthark]

There are some significant differences between the picture and your instrument: no kranz in the picture, the shape of the main tuning slide, and a mechanical linkage rather than string, with smaller shorter paddles. I know you said that the pictured tuba was a different model, but you wouldn’t think they would be making a completely different linkage system.

Yeah, I think it is just a price point thing, with the Kaiserbass being top of the line and much larger than this model, hence the (fancier) mechanical S linkage as opposed to cheaper string, different tuning slide, etc. If you look at other manufacturers from the same time period, like Cerveny or Alexander, you will see that they also offered a variety of configurations and layouts, horizontal vs. vertical tuning slides, etc.

[bloke]

I've wondered if sometimes these goofy looking main tuning slide bows are last minute alterations to dial in the tuning, maybe because one instrument to the next wasn't quite the same length. Notice I just use the word "wonder".

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[arpthark]

You sure do find some cool tubas!

Keeping an eye on Facebook Marketplace, tailored craigslist searches, and idly searching while I am sitting at my desk at work waiting for this-or-that task to complete have been pretty productive so far.

[Tubajug]

I've never seen a thumb ring attached to the second valve slide before. Nifty!

[bloke]

I've wondered if sometimes these goofy looking main tuning slide bows are last minute alterations to dial in the tuning, maybe because one instrument to the next wasn't quite the same length. Notice I just use the word "wonder".

Maybe it's a factory solution for the low pitch high pitch problem from 100 years ago

[bloke]

That sounds more reasonable and logical than my guess, but - even today - the huge tubas - in particular - seem to often miss the mark, as far as tuning range is concerned. The most common error seems to be making B-flat tubas for the American market too long, so as they barely play up to pitch.

There are some not-B-flat tubas - signature models - which barely play up to pitch and only with certain types of mouthpieces, but - knowing a little bit about the person associated with those signature models - I believe that's how they prefer to have their instruments set up.

I had an opportunity to purchase a huge Kruspe B-flat kaiser quite a few years ago from a local older gentleman, just a few years before he passed away. I would have to say that it looked like larger than 6/4 to me at the time, but that may have been due to my perspective and lack of experience with instruments unlike my own... I may have only been in my early twenties. It had the string linkage and the long paddles. I just didn't know how to make it go. Maybe it was a good instrument; maybe it wasn't. I think it ended up in North Carolina.

-----------------------------------------

Wow...
He and his wife must have been "conservative" or something...

They both (significant Memphis historical figures) have nearly been completely broomed from the internet.
She was the Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Chorus for decades. There's only a mention of her on the Memphis Symphony Chorus webpage, and her first name is misspelled, there.

I had to go to apolitical duckduckgo to find this




and this



duckduckgo also found this, which reminded me of her unceremoniously being fired, and then forming her own choir.

https://www.bizapedia.com/tn/sara-beth- ... orale.html

This last link also helped me to unconfuse my memory. I knew that she and Nick were not particularly wealthy, yet I remembered going to the mansion district on Central Avenue to try out the Kruspe kaiser B-flat. That previous address explains it: They lived in an apartment, in a building that was just about the same size/shape as most of the mansions - so as to blend in and to be zoning approved:

picture of their apartment building: https://i.imgur.com/8Y72LOJ.png

Allow me to type their names here, so there might possibly be one more place on the web where their names are mentioned:

Nick Causey, Memphis, Tennessee

Sara Beth Causey, Memphis, Tennessee - Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Chorus

[Stryk]

I don't know about Kruspe tubas, but I know several with Kruspe horns and they would never play anything else. One was the horn professor at FSU and two are friends that have played in German symphonies since we graduated. I would bet it is a great horn.

[bloke]

I don't know about Kruspe tubas, but I know several with Kruspe horns and they would never play anything else. One was the horn professor at FSU and two are friends that have played in German symphonies since we graduated. I would bet it is a great horn.

I heard a young man (blond curly hair...??) play a high-range (cello/bassoon/trombone/baritone) piece using a 4-valve Kruspe F tuba, back in the 1970's at a Kentucky/Tennessee regional T.U.B.A. shindig. I don't know how great the tuba actually was, but he played it very well.

[arpthark]

I don't know about Kruspe tubas, but I know several with Kruspe horns and they would never play anything else. One was the horn professor at FSU and two are friends that have played in German symphonies since we graduated. I would bet it is a great horn.

I heard a young man (blond curly hair...??) play a high-range (cello/bassoon/trombone/baritone) piece using a 4-valve Kruspe F tuba, back in the 1970's at a Kentucky/Tennessee regional T.U.B.A. shindig. I don't know how great the tuba actually was, but he played it very well.

I believe that was Bob Bryant:



http://www.bobbryantmusic.com/

[Rick Denney]

And at an old Army workshop back right after he had retired from the National Symphony, Dave Bragunier (RIP) performed a Strauss horn concerto using a 1903 Kruspe Eb tuba. He performed it very well, but my recollection is the fight he was bringing to the instrument was not entirely transparent.

Rick "looking at his 19-century Missenharter Eb-cum-almost-F tuba and resisting for the moment the itch to stick a mouthpiece in it" Denney

[Rick Denney]

Blake, that Kruspe you just acquired is making me feel just a bit better about my soldering skills, I have to say.

Rick "perpetrator of many a crappy backyard repair" Denney

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[arpthark]

Some more pics:

front:


back:


valves:


repaired(?) crack:


repaired(?) other crack:


solder work detail:


pinhole tear in bell:


kranz gap:


Got the mouthpiece and receiver soaking in Kroil overnight to see if anything can loosen 'em up.

[bloke]

Some of the sousaphones I'm working on (a cheapo semi-off-brand) feature 1st branches covered with spider cracks (dented and straightened way too many times).

I'm not filling them..."leaks" that far out (and in tubes that large) will

have no effect on the playability of the instrument

, and they're just going to be whackng those dents right back into the same spots - beginning next week.

I'm SMOOTHING OUT the cracked areas, but doing nothing more...

As far as fixing those cracks...I would probably refer you to someone who deals in crack.

[arpthark]

Some of the sousaphones I'm working on (a cheapo semi-off-brand) feature 1st branches covered with spider cracks (dented and straightened way too many times).

I'm not filling them..."leaks" that far out (and in tubes that large) will

have no effect on the playability of the instrument

, and they're just going to be whackng those dents right back into the same spots - beginning next week.

I'm SMOOTHING OUT the cracked areas, but doing nothing more...

As far as fixing those cracks...I would probably refer you to someone who deals in crack.

The crack on the nickel-silver ferrule is worrisome, but I wonder if I could get that brazed.

The other spidery cracks that have solder on them (?) I was considering asking for a patch.

The sloppy solder work, I wonder if I could clean that up a bit myself with some heat and a rag.

I was expecting the valve bodies to be caked in lime, but they are actually pretty clean, just very dry and gummed up with ancient oil or something.

All the slides are stuck. However, I don't see any loose solder joints in the instrument at all.

I wonder also about converting the string linkage, but that would not be priority 1.

The most concerning aspect is probably the very deformed upper branch.

[bloke]

I was down in the pawn shop in Pearl Mississippi one time and there was a Rudy 5/4 B-flat with none of the rotors and none of the slides. The entire bell was covered with spider cracks. I couldn't imagine there being any value there...??
I think they were asking something like a thousand bucks for it.

I suppose I might have paid 20 bucks for the bows that weren't cracked, but what would I do with them, and how would I know that they wouldn't start cracking?

[Tubajug]

Looks like they tried to use their entire roll of solder!