Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
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Went to the local music store (Adams) to get some work done on my Amati B&F Kaiser but the right person wasn't there (should have called first...) but since I was there II went into the tuba room and spotted this 3+1 compensating BBb there, it's a B&S 3182. Never seen one before, from what I can find online it is basicly a Courtois 182 (B&S produced these for Courtois apparently)
It's quite a bit smaller then "regular" compensating BBb's but I must say it plays quite nicely, can play down to the pedal in tune without too much lipping, no slide pulling needed. It definitely is a lot more comfortable to hold then the Besson 994GS
next to a Besson 994GS
I have it a week on trial now, monday we have rehearsal with the brass band, curious how it sounds in the group
@andycat do you have any experience with these or the Courtois 182?
These users thanked the author BramJ for the post (total 3):
arpthark (Sat Oct 04, 2025 8:21 am) • Mary Ann (Sat Oct 04, 2025 8:39 am) • gocsick (Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:51 pm)
Cool! Never seen one. Admittedly I was/am a bit ignorant of Courtois’s tuba offerings or their provenance… you occasionally see their trombones for sale on the used market in the USA.
Jonathan had Jinbao make something just about that size using the Hirsbrunner copy 4/4 B-flat body and a compensating B-flat valve section. That production frankentuba turned out fairly well... Of course, being English I'm sure he's always asking himself "What model can I make into a compensating B-flat" ?
In the description on the Wessex website Jonathan states that his goal was to improve on the compact Courtois design. The valve cluster looks very similar with the exception of the 3rd slide
Last edited by BramJ on Mon Oct 06, 2025 6:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Just played around a bit more with it
With the 3rd slide pulled a bit 23 and 13 are spot on and the 4th (pulled out quite a bit) can be used as a sort of register 'switch'
MiBrassFS wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 3:17 pm
There was one of the B&S Eb sister tubas in the back room at Custom for a while. It looked ever so slightly larger than a Besson 981, etc. I’ve never seen one of the BBb version shown here, but now I wonder if this BBb is based on the Eb and they share some bows and a bell with BBb length inner bows, etc.
This tuba looks pretty friendly to hold and play.
“Cut it to CC…?” Heh, heh…
This could be correct, just found this old catalog:
The 3812 doesn't even have an image but the height and bell size listed for the 3811 Eb matches the 3812 I have here
Just had the first rehearsal with it. I brought both tubas with me for comparison. General remark from the others and the director was that the sound of the B&S is "prettier" and "nicer", but in the pedal register is has less "power" (or "breadth" as Andycat mentioned maybe) as the Besson and the director thinks I can carry the bass section better with Besson (but hey, there are 2 more BBb's there, I don't need to do all the work!). The Eb player to my left mentioned he heard me less then usual, but that might also be explained by the fact that I hold the Besson with the bell straight up (otherwise the mouthpiece is to high) and the B&S more to the right.
But... in general the B&S is easier and way more comfortable to play. I only got one small remark on tuning, but that was easily fixed by pulling out the 1st slide a bit.
I also need to experiment a bit with mouthpieces, so far I tried the M&B MB5 and a JK 3AA, both bowl shaped. Maybe a funnel shaped mouthpiece will help with the low register? I have a Denis Wick 1L and PT50 to try
I no longer have it on trial, its now mine
I am now using a Josef Klier 3AA Classic Exclusive instead of the 3AA Exclusive I was using before. The Classic is more funnel shaped and it really helps with the low end
@PlayTheTuba: I am not familiar with the 3301, but I can take some measurements on the 3182 if you want.
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I personally own the rotary CC version, a B&S 4097 (PT 20). So I can try to take measurements too, if you do not mind and whenever you decide to take some measurements.
If you happen to take more photos, 'bloke' was kind enough to take and share pictures of the BBb 3301 in the past. If you like to see how it looked from front and back.
Sidebar, but I suspect that that B flat model was backwards engineered from a C model. I'm pretty sure that I've played the C model, and I think the B-flat version plays better in tune.
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