Posted by Bob Joles on March 05, 2004 at 01:30:44:
In Reply to: 184-6u posted by Mirafone Curiosity on March 04, 2004 at 18:55:09:
One day at a lesson with Tommy, I asked him about the different tubas he owned. He told me about his "double bell" tuba. It was the 6 valve 184 CC in the picture but had been altered sometime after that photo (with his four children) was taken. He said that he was at the Mirafone factory one day and asked the repairman (Dan Roush) what he could possibly do with the horn to make it unique and find a possible better use for the 6th valve. Dan told Tommy to leave the 184 with him and he'd try to come up with something.
A few weeks later Tommy was back at Mirafone and Dan presented him with the 184 - it now had two bells! The second bell was from a Contrabass Trombone and mounted on the back of the horn on the player's left side. It was activated by depressing the 6th valve which now redirected the air flow into the "smaller" bell. Tommy said the sound was that of a geat big bass trombone. And it really was a hugh sound that came out of that "little" bell!
Tommy then took his new toy to a recording session and showed it to the other brass players on the date as well as to the composer, Frank Comstock. Frank was amazed at the sound produced by the "little" bell and asked Tommy how he should write for it. They talked it over and at the next session (I believe it was for Adam-12) Tommy used the 184-6V double bell tuba with great success. I believe he even got doubling pay for using that horn! He used it for the rest of the run of that TV show and several others.
The second bell was detachable and Tommy would store it inside the big bell before placing the tuba in its gig bag. That tuba's body (sans valve section) is now hanging on the wall at Robb Stewart's repair shop in Arcadia, CA. But its sound(s) will live on in rerun TV forever.
Anyway, that's the story as I remember it. I could be wrong on a few points but Tommy did pull it out and play it for me at that lesson. I was really impressed… as any young tubist would be. What a sound. What a great player and teacher.
I owe much of my professional playing career to having studied with Tommy Johnson. And I sincerely thank him.
Cheers,
Bob