Tuba Tuesday: Riedl, CC Tuba, 4 Rotary Valve, c.1960

[bisontuba]

Happy Tuba Tuesday. The Museum today features a Riedl, CC Tuba, 4 Rotary Valve, c.1960.

Bell diameter is 15”, bore size is .758″ & it is 38′ tall.

“Const. Riedl / Instrumentenmacher / Nuremberg” on bell. This instrument has some of the most beautiful engraving on the finger buttons, bottom valve caps, and valve spring drums.

A trusted reference resource, The New Langwill Index which is a dictionary listing all wind instrument makers from the Renaissance to 1950, lists over 35 different makers of wind and brass instruments with the name of “Riedl.” These makers were mostly located in Central Europe; and many were located in the Austria-Hungarian city of Graslitz, which is now called Kraslice in the Czech Republic.

There were three generations of brass instrument makers with the name Konstantin Riedl. The first Kanstantin Riedl (b. 1838 - d. 1888) opened his brass instrument company in 1867 in Nuremberg, Germany. His son and grandson - both named Konstantin - continued the business into the mid-20th Century.

We thank Mr. Eddie Fargason for his generous and beautiful donation to our collection.





https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... ve-c-1960/

[bloke]

There were some Riedl bassoons made in Bohemia...

[bisontuba]

interesting story about that tuba.

long story short.

Eddie was the retired music minister From FBC dallas, and his old tuba player willed him a bunch of tubas after he died. Eddie knew nothing about tubas, and one of them was a cerveny, and someone directed him to me because I'm known as a cerveny guy. I went to his house, played a bunch of tubas, some great, some not so great, and he askewd me an approximate cost for each tuba. When it came to the riedl, I told him it played terrible, but looked great. at the time I thought it was close to 100 years old. I still do, I'm not sure where Vince got the idea that it was made in 1960

Anyway, I was about to take a road trip, which included passing through Durham, so I asked him if he wanted to donate the tuba to the museum, and I would deliver it myself. He agreed that would be fitting, so I took the horn with me on the trip, giving it one last oompah outside the Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh.

One more thing, a few months later, Eddie passed away from covid. He was the first person (seemingly healthy) person I knew to die from it.

[arpthark]

There were some Riedl bassoons made in Bohemia...

If there were at least two made, would those be doubl riedls?

[hrender]

Based on my incredibly limited experience, I'd be surprised if that Riedl was made any later than the 1930s. I guess it's possible they carried the older styles later, but I've not seen a post-WWII horn that looked like that.

[matt g]

That main tuning slide screams transitional low/high pitch era.

[bort2.0]

Vince also has this c. 1900 Riedl BBb in the collection, which seems just as fancy.

https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... -4-rotary/

[cjk]

This screams Bohland & Fuchs.

Screen Shot 2023-03-01 at 10.57.43 AM.png (63.35 KiB) Viewed 2333 times

https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... 1930-1940/

[Snake Charmer]

The valves without the horseshoe stop went out of fashion ca 1900 and ornamental engraving was extinct in Germany after WW2...

[Heavy_Metal]

And the paddle rack with its adjustable clocksprings looks just like the one on my Alex. Definitely older than 1960.