Posted by Ola on March 01, 2002 at 11:11:22:
In Reply to: Besson EEb question posted by Bryan on March 01, 2002 at 01:52:20:
That would be a neat little thing. Besson has quite recently released a new version of this instrument, which now has a larger reciever. The new ones are very very nice instruments!
The instrument you have might be the immediate predecessor to the 981 Souvereign. The 'tale' goes something like this:
John Fletcher was in rehearsal with the LSO using his EEb (15 inch bell), and the american condutor was complaining he had a too small instrument. Of course he was used to BAT's and other large CC's from conducting in the USA. Fletch then went to Boosey and asked them to make him a bigger bell on his instrument, which they did, making the two bells interchangeable. The conductor was happy as he saw something he percieved as a larger instrument. Afterwards, many british tuba players heard about this strange new instrument he was playing and Boosey got quite a large demand on instruments with the larger bell, and later this became the standard on the Souvereign line.
I don't know whether this is true or not, but I've been told this story by several unconnected people, so it might just be.
O