Crispy Kruspe

[arpthark]

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

Better than JB Weld!

[arpthark]

Got some work done on this today. I was able to remove the 2nd, 4th, and main slides thanks to Kroil, a dowel, and a mallet, along with bloke's twisty torsion method which he mentioned years and years ago. Leaving slides 1 and 3 to soak in Kroil for a while. Got some measurements: bore size is about 21mm / .827", receiver is large Euro.

The mouthpiece that was stuck in it is tiny. I wonder if it's early American. It's a small shank, and it was jammed into the receiver, hence the sticking. About 31mm opening, flat rim. Unmarked except for a number 25 on it. If anyone wants it, feel free to make an offer. I might see how it does in my 1904 York Eb. Here it is next to a Helleberg:

[arpthark]

I was also able to manually align the valves and play it a bit. Great, big sound, plays at A=440. Fourth valve is a normal five half step (descending perfect fourth) configuration instead of one of those wonky four half step (descending major third) configurations that some old tubas of that era used.

Slow progress...

[Grumpikins]

Price on that mp?

Sent from my SM-S367VL using Tapatalk

[TheBerlinerTuba]

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.

Please keep in mind, the instrument in the brochure is "drawn" and these drawing were usually contracted out with the artist having little to no context on what the actually instrument looked like. If someone is curious about the history of such catalogues, there is a fantastic book out by my colleague Mario Weller here:
https://www.verein-musikinstrumentenmus ... aloge-.php

The string linkage system was used by many german makers for export to the USA especially by Kruspe. When it's set up correctly, it should perform as well as any minibal linkage and you can keep the tuba original. Pitch in Europe and the USA was not standardized when this tuba was first made. It's pretty common to see them "extended" or modified in some way to deal with the local pitch. It's possible this tuba was originally meant for a higher pitch windband and then after arriving in the USA, brought down to its current 440Hz?

Thank you for bringing this old tuba back to life and good luck with the further repairs.

[arpthark]

Well, it's been quite an adventure with this instrument. It's 99% ready to go. I could play it in a group today. It rattles the rafters and is a totally unique design.

The one thing holding it back is the very slow spring action. I might need to get new springs.

@LeMark, how tall is your new Kaiser BBb? I think this instrument is comparable in height, but not in width. If a Kaiser BBb is a 6/4 tuba, this one is a 5/4.

[LeMark]

About 45 inches as far as I can tell. The bag I bought says it's good for tubas up to 45, and it barely fits.

[bloke]

It's not difficult to get Yamaha rotary springs, Meinl-Weston rotary springs, or Miraphone rotary springs. It's probably sort of close to one of those three - as far as configuration is concerned.

[arpthark]

I was able to get the valves moving faster by pouring about an ounce of oil down the mouthpipe and coating the valves. It works great now.

I think it is rehearsal ready. It definitely isn't display-ready. I have to do some solder cleanup and polish out some burnt brass. I am thankful this thing is in raw brass.

Here is all I've done (may take pics at some point):

- Pulled mouthpipe and added a patch/performed some dent removal

- Patched a torn (like, ripped diagonally) ferrule with a bit of nickel

- Rolled out bell

- New string linkage

- New spring on valve #1

- Unstuck slides 1, 2, and 4 (3 is a booger!)

Still left to do:

- Patch a spiderweb crack on the outer bow (not detecting a leak but better safe than sorry)

- Unstick slide #3

- General solder cleanup/polishing (nothing too drastic)

- Probably could use a bath or a hose-out. I will wait and hope for a warmer day to do this.

I think there's still some oil oil and gunk that makes the valves slow occasionally. It really needs to be flushed out, but I am itching to put it through the paces in a band rehearsal.

[bloke]

The first day I unpacked Bill Holt's pretty/jazzed-up five valve 1960s 186C, besides the bell being crinkled, the linkage clanking, a bunch of pretty big dents, and a nearly football-sized football-shaped flat spot on the bottom of the bottom bow, I yanked it out of the shipping box, didn't do anything at all to it, tossed it in the car, and took it to an orchestra rehearsal of the Polovetsian Dances. In that condition, that's what that stupid loud ass clip on YouTube was played on - that some 21,000 sillybillies have watched, to date. A good tuba is a good tuba, but I don't understand clicking on a video to listen to somebody play the same note over and over again really loudly. I showed the bottom to the trumpet section, and asked them if the tuba sounded flat.

[dp]

Subject: Crispy Kruspe

A friend delivered this to me yesterday.

Nice friend!

The fellow I bought my first tuba from oh, 40 years ago was into Kruspes big time. His name was Norm Bartold and him and his brothers had a chain of music stores in So California. I took a greyhound down to see a horn he'd advertised in the T.U.B.A. Journal....never used but off a horribly dusty shelf "LaSete" (not a Cerveny or an Alex, a B&S one)

but thats a different story.

The guy had rental properties but never rented the garages to his tenants, we went to three or four of them and I kid you not those garages were full to the rafters with instruments. Norm quickly found the horn he wanted to sell to me and grabbed a couple others (Kruspes) and we headed back to his house where he had a more Kruspes including an f and a tenor and a big one like yours and a CC, the guy flat out loved his Kruspes....and....those horns sounded wonderful! I was convinced they were special, but not at all because of his florid playing ..... I'd simply never heard different tubas have that much difference in sound that way. Have fun with yours, I suspect its a special instrument also. Now, 40 years later, I'd love to try one in CC...fat chance right?

[arpthark]

Thanks for the background info, Dale. Always cool to hear about these more obscure horns.

I took this thing to rehearsal. My conductor: "Did they have a contest back in the day to see who could build the tallest tuba?"

It measures about 43" tall, plus the keel on the bottom.

It's a true delight - pretty good intonation (seems like third partial is a bit high and fifth partial is a bit low, but I didn't use a tuner), big sound, could take everything I gave it without breaking up. Your typical large bore 5/4 BBb.

It still isn't pretty, but it's serviceable, and getting there. Next big step is ironing out the rather flat top bow. I'm just so glad it plays, and plays so well. And I'm glad it didn't fall apart during rehearsal! The string linkage held up. Looking forward to the next steps with this.

[Tubajug]

Looking good! I just noticed how looooong that bottom bow is! Dang!

[arpthark]

Looking good! I just noticed how looooong that bottom bow is! Dang!

Yes, and with the keel, it was tall in my seat -- I didn't realize HOW tall until I sat down with it (I had only ever played in my shop which has a canvas-bottom camp chair I use... not really a good indicator of mouthpipe placement). I was sort of craning my neck all night and that long upward-sloping mouthpipe means that I got a fair amount of, uh, "return" in the mouthpiece as I was playing. Next time I'll bring a playing stand!

[bloke]

I had a chance to buy one of those, once long ago. I believe I've talked about it in the past - here - a little bit. The man was the husband of the lady who was the director of the Memphis Symphony Chorus. They lived in a interesting apartment which was a generous portion of an old large reconfigured mansion in the old money part of town in Memphis. His name was Nick Causey. The price was reasonable, and I had the money. I just couldn't wrap my head around it at the time, because it just wasn't something that was anywhere close to my concept of what a tuba is - during that time in my life. I did have it in my lap and I blew a few sounds with the sluggish un-oiled valves and the brittle string linkage. It would be nice to go back in time with the experience I have now, have brought some oil with me, and sat there a little bit longer with it. I believe he sold it whomever was playing in the North Carolina Symphony, at that time. I'm thinking that person was about the same age as myself, but I can't pull their name up in my mind. That instrument really didn't have any issues other than needing to be cleaned and oiled on the inside.. maybe just oiled, and the typical bell dents - which were not horrible. I'm thinking that - besides the instrument being so much larger than that to which I was accustomed, probably me being a C tuba snob, and having just sold a C Alexander which was old and had intonation problems, my limited experience and biases were too much for me to overcome.