Posted by Mark on March 19, 2003 at 01:42:34:
In Reply to: Diameter Sizes on Detachable King Bells posted by Young Jenkins on March 15, 2003 at 01:10:13:
In my humble (but correct) opinion, the best bells ever put on the detachable model Kings were the heavy gauge 22" models. At some point White reconfigured the his upright tuba to accomodate the then in vogue bell front, although he tipped his back at an angle (like Martin did) to help the balancing act. Since the horn was configured to work with a 22" bell front, I found mine played best with the old H.N. White 22" upright bell. After 35 years of luggin around the two cases I have one of new horns on order - they are THE ANSWER. (Sorry, I just sold my old 1920s #1240) Also, the orignial version of the "Symphony Bass" was a one-piece, non-detachable bell-front - 22". The only other manufacturer I know of who made these beasts was York, incidentally. The Conns were always detachable. I believe the one-piece bellfronts were murder on dent removal, and probably lot of fun to braze together at the factory in the first place.
The "Bell" model CCs used the same bell collar from the existing parts bin as the sousaphone and the BBb & EEb tuba, and Mr. Bell, who had tone to spare, had White cut the bell down to near euphonium-size. Joe Novotny ("Buy yourself a tuba, learn to play it") knew every one of those horns by serial number, as they had come through during the time he was studying with Bell. Most of them aren't that great, probably only 28 ever made. Joe sounded great on his, and so did Abe Torchinsky (Phila). These horns were suppplied with the 22" bell front as well. Some of the employers back in the day required them - like Paul Lavalle and Paul Whiteman - they needed to "see" the tubas.