farewell to arms

[bloke]

...so I'm sorta making light of how tuba players refer to their selected instrument for a gig as "weapon of choice"...much as how bass trombone players seem to refer to their instrument/chair/music stand/folder as their "office"...

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This is a 1915 Conn Orchestra Grand (B-flat).

I decided to sell it for a mostly-as-is price to someone who really wants it.
TO BE CLEAR, IT IS SOLD.
I've not seen a picture of another one on the web that checks all these boxes with one instrument:

☑ short mouthpipe
☑ main slide after the valves
☑ four valve front action
☑ left hand accessible upper #1 tuning slide
☑ one-piece original upright bell
☑ all original everything
☑ no cracks nor patches
☑ nearly all of the silver finish intact
☑ playable without thousands of dollars of work beyond the acquisition cost
☑ 3rd partial open F is usable, particularly when the larger bows are warmed up to playing temperature

I'm pretty sure it will be picked up in a few days.
I roughed out the dents, aligned the pistons, straightened out a stem and some buttons, soldered two or three joints...unstuck the stuck slides...
again: very playable, and - if the next owner wants to trick it out, it's quite nice-playing enough to be worthy of that...and it should NOT need to be re-silver plated in any full-blown restoration thing. (again...only a few worn spots)

good-bye pics: (If "Conn Loyalist" wants these, they're welcomed to them. btw...it's a .765" bore instrument, and the bell is 22"...made in 1915...blah-blah-blah...)

[MiBrassFS]

That was a great looking tuba!

[bloke]

It would present itself better in these pictures were I to polish it, but that's just not part of the deal.

Some of those black lines and things that used to be dents are no longer dents.

[Charlie C Chowder]

My arms are to short to reach the fourth valve.

CCC

[prairieboy1]

Wow! There is a "forever" horn if I've ever seen one!

[bloke]

Imagine after...
- take-apart dent removal
- maybe (??) a valve rebuild job (to bump the valves from B up to A)
- shorten #1 and #3 circuits (from "old school" lengths to modern lengths)

tuning: A=440 is probably about a 1-inch or 1-1/4 inch pull with something like 72-or-so degrees Fahrenheit, but I have to pull out the main slide farther (because I'm only willing to pay for my air-conditioner to cool this place down to 78 degrees, and only that low when I'm practicing).