Interesting Marzan stuff
Attention Marzan owners.... It's common knowledge that the Marzans were built by B & M or Willson. But... a new 'puzzle' has surfaced. Brett Morrow's horn appears to have been built by B & M but has a different valveset... more-or-less in the same configuration as the Willson horns but with a .754" bore instead of .671/.710 graduated bore found on the Willson ones. Please email me with information regarding the bell size and bore size of your Marzans so I can try to sort this out.
Here's a B & M-built CC that I recently acquired. This one's for sale:
Brett Morrow's outstanding CC Marzan is pictured below. It was made in the B & M factory in 1970. He has both bells for this horn but rarely uses the recording bell. Beautiful horn, Brett!
Three students of Richard Barth's at the University of Akron sometime in the early 80's...
Phil Louden, Gary Adams, and Ken Blasczak. Thanks for the information, Richard!
Cure for the 'hopping' string arms on the Marzan 'slant-rotor' tubas:
The 'slant-rotor' Marzans are wonderful players and the string-operated rotors are very smooth... with one very irritating little problem... The string bars tend to 'hop' when the finger levers is pressed and 'dive' when the lever is released. This is a natural action due to the design of the linkage. The system still works well but presents an annoying little 'click'. The phenomenon can be helped by keeping the strings nice and tight but I've also noticed that rotor speed is sacrificed if the strings are too tight. I converted one of my Marzans to Dubro spherical ball ends as I've outlined below. However... I really like the looks of the string-action and wanted to keep my horns as original as possible and still function in a way that I like. My latest effort is to add a couple of O-rings to the stop arms to give the string bars more of a defined path and do away with the 'hopping' action. In initial trials, I simply forced O-rings over the stop arms above the string path. The 'hopping' action was suddenly totally controlled. So... I decided to put another O-ring UNDER the string path to control the 'diving'. There was no way this one would stay put so I ground a shallow groove around part of the stop arm and over the outside of the lug that holds the string screw. It worked so well to locate the O-ring that I also spun a groove in the top of the stop arm. The O-rings that I'm testing here have a .088" cross section. The top one has a 3/8" ID. The bottom one has a 1/2" ID. Both 'snap' into the grooves. Three pictures below (sorry about the fuzziness. I'm a repairman... not a photographer!) show the stop arm on the left with the grooves top and bottom. The center picture shows the stop arm with the O-rings installed. The picture on the right shows how everything looks put together.
String to Dubro linkage conversion on my slant-rotor Marzan:
To follow are several pictures showing the steps in removing the string linkage and installing the more reliable Dubro spherical rod ends. Although I really didn't have any string breakage, there was a slight noise from the string arm 'slapping' the side of the stop arm that was bugging me. The new linkage is strong and quiet. The stop arms had to be modified to accept the new spherical balls. First, I drilled a piece of brass with the pattern necessary and then cut out and shaped the new pieces. The pieces are then soldered onto the stop arm with the hole for the spherical ball 180 degrees opposite the old string screw.
Next, I cut the old string bar and drilled & tapped a #4-40 hole directly into the end. A Dubro gizmo called a 'turnbuckle' is screwed into the tapped hole. Note that there is also a locknut on the turnbuckle. Then... a Dubro link is screwed onto the left-hand thread half of the turnbuckle. The Dubro links are not threaded but are in interference-fit for the #4 threads on the turnbuckle and can be screwed on either right or left hand. This makes the length of the link assembly fully adjustable so the finger paddles can be raised or lowered by turning the turnbuckle on way or the other.
More views of the link assemblies. Now, all I need to do is take things apart and replate the silver. I like the silicone rubber bumpers. They are nice and quiet! NOTE: since these pictures were taken, I've added spacers under the paddle bar to make the links parallel to the valve section. The function and force vectors remain the same but it's just a bit 'prettier'.
Here's the basis for Fred Marzan's horns. View his patent here:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=0MA4AAAAEBAJ&dq=marzan+tuba
There are several Marzan tubas and euphoniums documented on this page. As far as I've determined, no actual production numbers or serial number lists have ever been published. If you have any additional information about Fred Marzan's horns, please contact me.
This recent addition belongs to 'Dave in Kentucky'. It's the first B & M-built Marzan I've seen with a detachable bell. As you can see, Dave has BOTH bells for this unusual horn.
Here's something you're just not going to see every day... both of the large Marzan tuba (piston and slant-rotor) side-by-side. I've owned the piston horn for a couple of years and just came across this silver slant-rotor and bought it on September 1, 2008. Never thought I would get a chance to play and compare the two types of Marzans:
A couple of folks asked about the routing of the Marzan 4th piston wrap. Below is about the best picture I could get. The wrap exits the 4th pistons and head toward the top of the horn. After about two inches it takes a 90 degree turn toward the rear... then another 90 back towards the top where there is a tuning slide. After the tuning slide it heads to the bottom of the horn after making a 'dogleg' near the thumbring. It's then hidden from view (indicated by the smaller red dots) and makes a full 360 degree loop and goes to another tuning slide in front of the bottom bow. It then goes up and returns to the 4th piston. Note that ALL tuning slides, including the main, are at the top of this horn. In my opinion... one improvement Mr. Marzan could have made to his horns would have been to have ANOTHER main tuning slide that could be left in position. It would be nice if the one on top could be left all the way 'in' to only be used for 'pulling'.
This beautiful Marzan (Willson) euphonium (below) is owned by Mauro Cadei in Italy. The restoration work, silver plating, and trigger on the main slide was done by G & P ( http://www.gp-wind.com/ ) Mauro is the maintainer of www.TubaForum.it (the Italian web site for tuba and euphonium players).
The owner of this outstanding example is Rabbi Doug Weber of Rutland,
Vermont. It's a slant-rotor CC that he bought new in January of 1973
for a whopping $1,185 plus shipping.
Another new addition is this Willson-built Marzan owned by Anthony Longano. Anthony is a student of Paul Scott in Northern New Jersey.
This Marzan is owned by Dean Snavely and was added to this page on 12/3/2007. This beauty is one of the Willson horns with the 17" bell.
This is a fine example of a slant-rotor Marzan owned by Jeff Hudson at the VCU Center for Performing Arts in Richmond, VA
Here's a Marzan tuba that sold on Ebay on June 24, 2007. It only had one rotor and was missing the whole fingerboard assembly. Maybe the new owner will provide me with some more photos after a little restoration work is done.
Here's an exellent example of a Boehm & Meinl tuba was was the same model as those that bore the Marzan logo. It's owned by Jose Hernandez:
The following pictures of Fred Marzan's personal horns. The first set of images are Fred Marzan's solid copper Sander CC. Although this IS NOT a Boehm & Meinl 'Marzan' tuba, it represents an outstanding item from the Marzan estate. The second set of images are his slant-rotor CC. The pictures were provided by Bill Wheeler of Buddy Rogers Music Company with the help of Gregg Saunders:
Well... the bidding's over and the new owner of Fred Marzan's solid copper 'Sander' tuba is Kit Johnson. Kit plays tuba with the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band. Have a listen to Kit's arrangement of 'Dude Ranch Blues'. You will find a bit of information about Kit, the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band, and a link to 'Dude Ranch Blues' here:
http://www.bscjb.com/about_the_band/kit.shtml
Fred Marzan's personal slant-rotor CC
Marzan Horns
If you have information about Marzan tubas, please forward it to me and I'll include it on this page. I need such things as a description, photos, serial number, history of the horn, date of manufacture, previous owners, etc. The first picture below is my Marzan four piston BBb. The serial number is 74265 and I think it was manufactured in the Bohm & Meinl Factory in 1971. The bore is .751" (19MM). The diameter of the bell is 19"... and the overall length is 37". The horn is all yellow brass with the exception of the main tuning slide which is nickel-silver. The main slide is on top the farthest from the bell. Note that ALL of the tuning slides are at the top... a characteristic of many of Fred Marzan's horns.
My Marzan
Steve Shoop's Marzan
Steve's Marzan is pictured below. It was manufactured by Willson. It has a 17" bell and a smaller bore than the horns that were built by Bohm & Meinl. Beautiful horn, Steve!
Marzan Euphonium
Pictured below is an example of one of the Marzan's euphoniums. It was formerly owned by Al Stark and was sold to an unnamed buyer in May 2008.
Below is a picture of one of the pistons out of the above Marzan euphonium. Notice the concave profile of the cork on top of the piston. The profile of the cork matches the underside of the top cap. There is no felt bumper... just the cork. Maybe one of you repairmen can give me some insight into what Marzan had in mind when using just cork and no felt... and some reason why the profile instead of just a flat cap and cork.
Bill Tipkemper's Marzan
David Sokol's Slant-Rotor Marzan
Below are two pictures of David Sokol and his Marzan. The images were taken by Richard Cowels while David was working with bluesman Mark Tolstrup in Sarasota, NY between 2002 and 2005. Outstanding horn, David. Thanks to you guys for sharing the pictures.
Michael Keller's 'Slant Rotor' Marzan
Donn Cissinger's Marzan
Ryan Robert's 'slant rotor' Marzan
Thanks for the great pictures, Ryan! It's very interesting that none of the slant rotor horns have any serial numbers. I guess the factory expected the US dealers to assign their own serial numbers.
Here's a page out of the DEG catalog showing the Marzan tubas:
Below is a view of the Meinl Weston factory where the larger Marzans were made:
From left to right: Oskar Kasponski, Anton Meinl, Mrs. Anton Meinl (Mary), Fred Marzan, William Bell.
Below.... The IU Octet:
Back row L to R: Peter Sexauer, unknown, L. B. Oliver, Fred Marzan, unknown.
Front row L to R: William Bell, Jerry Lackey, Richard Council, James Linn.
Note: The ITEA website notes that "Mr. Bell is holding L. B. Oliver's rotary Martin CC".
(I wasn't aware that Martin made a slant-rotor CC, especially one with a tuning slide in the leadpipe.... but I've confirmed that the horn was indeed built by Martin... apparently before the Marzan tubas went into production. Who knows what kind of horn Mr. Marzan is playing!)
Here are 'the tubaguys' at Cumberland Forest Lake Music Camp:
L to R: Arnold Jacobs, William Bell, Fred Marzan
Send me your Marzan stuff and I'll add it to this page
page edited on March 15, 2011