Vintage Besson turns up in Alabama middle school

[DaveBj]

Monday night Mrs. Bean, the instrumental music teacher at the local middle school where the Cullman Community Band rehearses, brought me a horn that the school had inherited (pics attached). It is a UK-manufactured Besson, and it has been around the block a few times, but it is still playable, and she wonders whether it would be worth it having Southeastern Music do a rehab on it. The tubing is almost identical to that on my Chinese-clone compensating 3-valve baritone (itself a copy of the Besson 3-valve comp bari), except that when seen from the back, the two upper arched are set higher (closer to the bell) than on my horn. We can't find a serial number on it anywhere; did Besson used to have a secret location? The valve block and lead pipe are unmarked. I am totally ignorant on vintage instruments, but my wild guess is that it is an old New Standard 3-valve comp euphonium, and I'm asking for input from the more knowledgeable members of the hive mind. Now let's see if I can get those photos attached . . .

[TheJH]

Nope that's a 3-valve comp baritone. No idea where the serial number should be though, but it definitely is a baritone. I have a New Standard baritone that looks the exact same. And afaik, Besson/B&H never put anything on the valve block except the '1 2 3' to indicate what valve is which.

Doing a wild unfounded guess, I would say it's from the 60s at most, probably even older.

[tjjc]

Yes, definitely a 3-valve compensating baritone. I once owned a lacquered example of the same model. It was not a good player. I blamed this on the general condition of the horn and its worn valves, but I think other forum members have stated that these horns in general were poor performers. The bell is much smaller and the wrap of the main branches differs from that of the more successful 955 Sovereign model that followed. I'm sure others will weigh in, but I wouldn't invest too much time and money in it.

[Shinn]

The 3-valve compensating baritones made in the later 1970’s (model 755) have much better intonation than those made in the 1960’s (model 168). Attached are a few catalogue sheets as references - 168 in 1958 catalogue and 755 in 1977 catalogue.

The serial number should be in the same location as the New Standard euphoniums - see red circle in the attached picture.

Here are two (2) links to cross-reference the serial number with the date of manufacture.

http://www.dwerden.com/Special/bandh_handlists_web.pdf

http://www.dwerden.com/blog3/postima...ialNumbers.png

[DaveBj]

Thanks, David; that helps a lot.

[TheJH]

My NS baritone is from 1975 and it's alright actually. Only TC D above tuning C is flat with 1 so I have to play it with 1-3, and some Es and As have to be played with 3 instead of 1-2. I'm lucky mine still has almost perfect compression, but it should certainly suffice for a beginning player. Paired with a Yamaha 48 mouthpiece the only hindrance is the lack of power and broadness of sound to get along with euphos and trombones, but that's just the difference in models, the NS being much smaller in everything causing that.

But again, for a starting player, not too bad.

[daruby]

This New Standard baritone is likely from 1960s. Usually the serial number would be on the back side of the bell throat about opposite of the leadpipe. You should be able to see it when the horn is laying horizontal with the leadpipe under the horn.

Doug