Re: New Besson 995 CC tuba ?


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Posted by Steve Perry on November 07, 2003 at 15:26:07:

In Reply to: New Besson 995 CC tuba ? posted by Don on November 07, 2003 at 09:42:00:

This is what I wrote a couple of months ago:

I bought a new Besson CC from a store outside of NYC. I was able to pick from a litter of 3, and luckily, one of those horns was a new arrival from a second batch that was sent to the store, so that little bird from the above post my be somewhat correct. The horn I walked away with is GREAT. The intonation is on the money (typical small adjustments) and the response from the horn is consistent up and down. The other horns had this consistency as well. There were some problems with the other horns that came from 10 serial numbers preceeding the one I bought and a problem with the one I bought, which was adjusted by a master repairman.

1) ALL the horns played sharp. My tuning slide was just about falling out, and that is no way to live while playing. I was told by the store rep that this had been experienced by other players. I also own a 6/4 Nirschl and don't experience that problem, nor with the MW 2145 that I will be selling. A larger mouthpiece did not remedy the problem. The repair person lengthened the slide before I left, doing a wonderful job, too. It didn't change the intonation or the response of the instrument. By the way, Sam Palafian communicated with me that his horn hadn't been a probem, but then maybe that's a prototype that was tweaked for him. Who knows.

2) The valve set is large. Larger than my 6/4 set that I have. Also, it's larger than MW valve sets. Won't be a problem, though, with some of you big boys out there, but if you have average hands, you'll feel the reach. I can work with it, and I am 5'11".

3) One of the horns should not have been sent out by the factory. The valve caps were too large for the valves. Threading was a laborious task. A quick squirt of valve oil in a pinch would be impossible. This also happened with the bottom valve caps. I experienced this only on this particular horn. The other 2 were fine.

I do feel that this horn will compete very favorably, and win, in the long run with other 4/4 CC pistons.
Besson does a real nice job completing this instrument, for the most part.

STEVE PERRY



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