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I obtained an old Buescher tuba this weekend from a former student. Appears to be a very cool piece of history. Does anyone know how to find the year of manufacture? SN: 73324

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ugBoghSWggFroabg7

1920

I had the recording bell version of this. Cool horn!

Thanks. I think the this will be a good restoration project. It appears to have been satin silver with bright silver logo and inner bell. Plays pretty well as-is but I think there’s a small leak somewhere. Bell has been removed at some point and there’s some patch work from the large bell flair having been bent over the years. Some small cracks due to sitting the bell down too hard, etc.

If this bell wasn’t damaged, it would really be worth doing a full restoration and putting it to use.

Aw, I see those patches in the background now. That's a shame.

How's the piston plating?

How's the pitch? Low pitch? High pitch? Exactly what pitch?

What's it say on the your 2nd valve cylinder? On my 1924 Eb Buescher, the serial number is on the front of the 2nd valve cylinder at the top, just below the cap. Just below the serial number is 'LP' (low pitch), and it turns out it was pitched to 435 (or at least that's the best conclusion I could come to after a lot of testing). I cut it down to 440 and put a standard size US tuba receiver on it (after not finding a "small European" shank mouthpiece I liked).

The piston plating on mine looks a bit sad, but only the 3rd valve leaks in a minor way.

The pitch is quite good. It is indicated "LP" low pitch but it sits just right on a tuner at 440. I haven't noticed any obvious work done to it to change the tuning if it was actually low at some point. I didn't think to take out the valves and look at the plating. Will do that later when I get home. I also want to get a couple of the stuck slides loose. The second and third slides are stuck. Maybe I won't have to do any unsoldering of crooks to correct that. Maybe it hasn't been stuck since 1919!

I think it takes a Euro shank MP but an American shank does fit into it but not as far in as modern horns.

Jason

harrell wrote: Tue Feb 17, 2026 11:56 am The pitch is quite good. It is indicated "LP" low pitch but it sits just right on a tuner at 440.

Yeah, the "LP" designation by itself is ambiguous. Apparently for Buescher it sometimes meant "440" and sometimes "435". You got lucky on that.