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Been looking for a german style tuba for a while now and this one popped up on Tubaforum.de last week and I was interested right away, sent a message and this morning I cruised 700km/434mi (probably not that much for you that are used to longer distances, but I am from a tiny country ) on the german autobahn to try and pick it up



It is a Bohland and Fuchs branded Amati 69, originally built as a 3-valve. Bore is 21.2mm (.835) and the bell is 50cm (19.7"). It was built somewhere in the '50's according to the seller


The seller also made some modifications to make it easier to pull the 1st valve slide and he had the tuning slide shortened so it can play up to 443hz
Overall in very good conditions, some dents in the larger tubes, but the valve section in in excellent condition. The nickel plate also looks very good, very shiny bell. It is just needs some new bumpers on the valves



With its new family: Besson 994GS, Cerveny 1660 (Arion) and Amati 541 F tuba (with added 5th)
As you can see, it's a big one!

Looks great! Love the nickel finish and engraving on the bell

That is a big one! Congrats on the new horn!

Congratulations! That's a beautiful horn!

YUGE!

I like the heavy-duty handle!

You are welcome to send it over here to the states for me to go over it. I'll be sure and get it back to you within a few years.

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Jul 30, 2024 4:21 pm You are welcome to send it over here to the states for me to go over it. I'll be sure and get it back to you within a few years.

Hmm, can I borrow your 98 then in the meantime?


I have been practicing in the garage lately when the kids are sleeping. The garage has steel cabinets along the wall. When practicing with the Cerveny Arion it is fine, but when playing the kaiser all cabinets start vibrating, there is a lot more power in this thing

NIce!

BramJ wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 2:29 am

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Jul 30, 2024 4:21 pm You are welcome to send it over here to the states for me to go over it. I'll be sure and get it back to you within a few years.

Hmm, can I borrow your 98 then in the meantime?


I have been practicing in the garage lately when the kids are sleeping. The garage has steel cabinets along the wall. When practicing with the Cerveny Arion it is fine, but when playing the kaiser all cabinets start vibrating, there is a lot more power in this thing

I've never had the opportunity to play an Arion, but based on the JP copy, it's an extremely good design, so - assuming your new kaiser is a fine instrument - at least two of your instruments are really exceptionally good.

Your kaiser and Arion are a similar pair to my 98 and my Holton.

I'm jealous of your arion. I've been looking for a pre 1990 Arion for many many years and have never seen one for sale.

LeMark wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 9:07 am I'm jealous of your arion. I've been looking for a pre 1990 Arion for many many years and have never seen one for sale.

There was a dented-but-not-destroyed shiny one on ebay for (opening bid) $1200 and b-i-n $2000 recently (in a Winter case).
I believe that was taken down, and it was offered on fb marketplace for $2000.
Don't take this as gospel; I'm old and remember things incorrectly more than rarely. .

I must have missed that one. I see a lot of newer ones but this one appears to be from the late 60's or 70's.

The one on FB was, I believe, in CT (about 40 minutes from my house) and it looked to be a post-90s one.

viewtopic.php?t=9642

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285968887087

100%, that's a newer one

LeMark wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 9:17 am I must have missed that one. I see a lot of newer ones but this one appears to be from the late 60's or 70's.

The for-sale one had the crappy "sideways Z"-shaped flat-material linkage.

I've not seen anything else crummy about instruments from that era, other than the linkage.
rotor fit is always "good" as is slide alignment...ie. "as good as most", as even the finest are rarely perfect.
thinwall...??
' fine with me.

A Jakob Winter case is always a super-nice bonus, particularly for a thin-walled tuba.

LeMark wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 9:07 am I'm jealous of your arion. I've been looking for a pre 1990 Arion for many many years and have never seen one for sale.

It's owned by one of the bands I play in, it was purchased in the early 80's, but I am not sure if it was new then. It does need some work. The main tuning slide is out of alignment because someone fell down with it while marching and some more dents in the bigger branches but nothing too serious.

bloke wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 8:34 am ... assuming your new kaiser is a fine instrument - at least two of your instruments are really exceptionally good.

I hope so! So far I really like it but I need to spend more time with it

Maybe @Kontrabasstuba knows this instrument, he knows the previous owner at least

Nice tuba Bram!
We could do a side-by-side comparison with my kaiser tuba once maybe...

Sounds like a good idea!
Once I am used to the new instrument and I learned to read concert pitch parts (I decided to finally learn to read 'proper' tuba sheet music instead of transposed), sure, why not?