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Not sure of his "warning". BBB tuning in the 70s is the same as it is now.

anadmai wrote: Tue Jan 20, 2026 1:48 pm Not sure of his "warning". BBB tuning in the 70s is the same as it is now.

I've encountered a wide range of tuning funkiness on these Besson New Standard Ebs.

Mine plays just the slightest bit flat, but I've seen several from the same time period that play a bit sharp and have had the slides extended.

still debating if I want a 15" Eb to go with my 19" Eb Bass or a 17" BBb.

anadmai wrote: Tue Jan 20, 2026 1:48 pm Not sure of his "warning". BBB tuning in the 70s is the same as it is now.

I assume the warning is more along the lines of don't be surprised when you can't push the tuning slide all the way in, as that looks like the extensions might be longer inner sleeves?

I haven't worked any underlying physics out, but i think wider bell flare implies a slightly longer resonating column? I think the phenomenon is connected to the fact that mutes have to stick out some in order not to affect the tuning. So a narrower bell of the same length could tune sharper, all else being equal? Although i have heard that mainly applied to the flare, and Bessons do understate their flare, at least compared to other tubas... So in long run, i may not know what i'm talking about.

Sure is a beauty! And man do Bessons (and Besson Ebs in particular) sound good to my untutored ear!

I had a similar horn, the small bell is the bomb! I loved the sound, the intonation tendencies took a bit (or a lot, actually) of getting used to. Depending on the weather, the ensemble, or maybe the moon’s phase, I would need a sousaphone bit to bring it down to pitch, which also had the serendipitous effect of making it more comfortable to hold.

This thread inspired me to pull mine out and put an hour of face time on the instrument.

It takes a few minutes for it to play up to pitch, but once it’s warmed up, the tuning is excellent. The only caveat is using 9th partial fingerings for high Eb and D (1 and 12).