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Tuning, old versus newer instruments

Author: Tony F
Date: 2017-01-23 10:05

Just for my own satisfaction I've just done a fairly laborious tuning comparison of several older Bb instruments that I play regularly against some newer ones that I play less often. The instruments are:

Older instruments:
Circa 1900 Jerome Thibouville Lamy
1946 Pre R13 Buffet
1946 B & H Imperial 926 in hard rubber
1951? Pustophon
1927 Louis of Chelsea
1937 B & H 1010

Newer instruments.
1966 R13
1971 B&H Imperial 926 in wood
1960's Couesnon Monopole
2012 Yamaha 450
Leblanc L7

I won't bore you with a lot of tedious detail, but the results surprised me somewhat. I used a Korg tuner. By far the best tuning was obtained with the Yamaha, with the others in order of best tuning being:

Pustophon
Louis
Pre-R13 Buffet
R13
L7
1946 B & H Imperial
JTL
Couesnon Monopole
B & H 1010
1971 B & H Imperial.

Since I had a captive audience I also asked for their subjective view of which instruments sounded best to them. Mostly I used my usual mouthpiece, a Clark Fobes San Fransisco CF+, but on some I used other mouthpieces. On the 1010 I used a Pillinger 1010. I played the same pieces on all instruments. All instruments have been restored/rebuilt by me and are in excellent playing condition. This result surprised me. It was:

Pustophon
1946 Imperial
Yamaha
Louis
Couesnon
L7
R13
Pre-R13
1971 Imperial
JTL
1010

My observation is that among this selection the fit, finish and wood of the older instruments are mostly far better than the more recent instruments. The Yamaha and Pustophon are outstanding in this regard, but the Louis, Leblanc and Couesnon are close behind.

Tony F.

Post Edited (2017-01-23 12:03)

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