Posted by Jay Bertolet on March 30, 2001 at 18:24:05:
In Reply to: Re: E - flat tubas posted by Bill Jagnow on March 30, 2001 at 16:32:34:
Is that really true? I was reading my Bevan last night and there was a discussion about how there was a very large influx of money given to the English brass band community in the late 1990's by the government and that many of the area brass bands sold their older instruments and bought brand new Besson Sovereigns, both BBb and Eb. The problem was that there were so many orders placed at once that the Besson factory couldn't keep up with them all and quality standards dipped for a time as they tried to meet demand. This resulted in some dissatisfaction with the brand and other options were sought. One of the big winners, so Bevan says, was Yamaha with their Eb Sovereign copy (631) and their improved Eb, the 632.
When I read that story last night, it struck me as odd and I wondered if that really was true or not. Something like that has happened here in the US a number of times with various companies at various times but Bevan makes the English market sound like Besson had a monopoly there because for the longest time, the importation to England of instruments manufactured in other countries was illegal. I would expect that what you report about players using Sovereigns should be accurate based on tradition but I'd also expect to see quite a bit of variety in light of Bevan's statements. I'd be curious to know more if you could shed more light.