"New Tuba Day" Posts

[tubatodd]

@Sousaswag wow what a horn history. Some really awesome pieces of plumbing. I approve of your choices. I would have loved to have owned any and all of those CC tubas.

[the elephant]

I have the guts, I have to clip a trace or two and bodge in wires to make the video work.

Someday…

[je]

Low Friends in Places

NTD.jpg (182.5 KiB) Viewed 7151 times

This Yamaha YEB-632IIS tuba was new, though the actual NTD was a few months ago. I like my King 2341, but I love this tuba. Intonation is as good as for any valved brass instrument I've played, and it's easy to produce what sounds to me like a sweet, lyrical tone. Slots are well defined, and the valve action is excellent. If I were to change one thing, it would be to use water key hardware for the first valve slide that doesn't poke the inside of my forearm. And I wouldn't change a second thing.

My mouthpiece search ended with a Sellmansberger Imperial (#1 rim), which is within spitting distance of "perfect" for me on this tuba.

There tends to be a bit of a judgmental attitude toward other people’s choices here. It discourages “new tuba/euph” posts a bit.

Indeed, I can predict at least the following judgmental attitudes toward my choice of instrument:

• It's a "fake B♭" tuba, because it has a 19" bell rather than 17", or even better, 15".
• Real American tuba players don't play compensating E♭ tubas; they're a cheat for euphonium players.

I can at least see the point regarding bell size; this tuba probably doesn't cut through a mix as a solo instrument like one with a 15" bell would. But for my purposes, the larger bell makes the instrument more broadly useful. And that relates to the second criticism; this tuba is not the best contra, nor is it the best solo instrument, but it's very good for nearly every use case. I'm happy to have one tuba with minimal quirks to focus my efforts on, rather than many tubas with myriad quirks.

[MiBrassFS]

Eb tubas rule. At least for me. They’re my home base.

[tubatodd]

Nice collection of basses @je

[arpthark]

Eb tubas rule. At least for me. They’re my home base.

Don’t you mean home bass?

I’ll show myself out…

[arpthark]

Really Long Post Warning: Here are some of the highlights of my New Tuba Days... most of these have gone to new homes now.

B&S PT-6. Loved that horn. This tuba belonged to Jon Voth. I drove to DC in late December and bought it, and then back to KY in a day (16hr r/t).



Cerveny Piggy. Late 70s model, belonged to John Cradler and John Stevens, who won their Marine Band audition and toured with it for the US run of Barnum, respectively. This was one of the "wide octave" Pigs. Bottom C was flat, upper C was sharp. Still a really nice horn. The linkage was swapped out with Rudi Meinl paddles and the updated Cerveny ball-and-sockets.



Cerveny 601 Kaiser BBb. What a huge tuba.



Mirafone 184 CC. This tuba belonged to Bill Kearney, who was Roger Bobo's colleague at Eastman. Kearney went on to play this instrument professionally in the Buffalo Philharmonic. It was later swapped out to have three different modular leadpipes. It was a really cool horn that I regret selling. This vintage of 184, the intonation was pretty spotty with Alexander-like tendencies of middle G sagging flat. But it was cool with a neat history.





Here is Bill Kearney with the very same horn:



Alexander 163 CC: my first foray into Alexander land. I believe this tuba belonged to Dean Somerville, a retired military musician, who got the linkage changed out to miniballs and put on those clever paddle extenders. It also sported aftermarket lacquer. A really cool horn, but I was too broke to do the things that needed to be done to it, like adding a fifth valve and trimming some slides. It really got me hooked on the Alex sound.



Rudolf Meinl 3/4 CC: really cool horn. It did everything I wanted and had good intonation. But I also had a Miraphone 186, approximately the same size, so I chose that one which was more point and shoot.



Speaking of which, here was the Miraphone. It was a Tuba Exchange model without a lot of the fancier trim, but it still had a kranz. Nice player.



Around this time, I bought the Vienna-system (3+3) Alexander 156 F tuba from Sam Gnagey. This belonged to Sam Greene, who played it in Cincinnati. My favorite F tuba of all time, super sweet. I traded it for the Gnagey CC below when my playing needs changed.



I also experimented with a Besson 15" bell E-flat at this time. I bought one on eBay. It arrived with horrible peeling lacquer and was dog-ugly. I stripped it and scotchbrited it to a nice brushed finish. Now, almost nine years later, I had the chance to buy back the exact same tuba.

2016:


Today:


Here was my Kalison 2000, basically a large 5/4 or 6/4 size tuba. Really nice sound, really nice valves (Gronitz? Bauerfeind?). The intonation tendencies were sort of the opposite of what you'd expect from a tuba this size. It was a lot of tuba.



Miraphone 188 with "Presto" linkages. Great sound, point-and-shoot.



My Gnagey CC with Holton bell, which I sold to @tubanh84 almost 8 years ago now. I think it still lives with him in Alaska.



I took several years off playing and got back into the mix with a Musica/VMI CC. Really, really tall tuba. Nice player. I think I had it shipped to me, and it survived. I played my last recital on this tuba and on a Meinl-Weston 46 F which I don't have any good pics of.



Then COVID hit and I sold all my tubas and bought a house. Fast forward two years, I decided to buy this nice Eastman 832. Super horn.



Got back into F tuba land with a cheap little Yamaha 621 clone that I bought directly from China using Western Union. Sketchy, but it worked out for under $2k.



Ended up working out a 1,000 mile r/t, three-tuba trade to snag this nice Piggy CC, one of my favorites:



Found a nice 1960s Conn 36K with the awesome floral paintjob (of course, I named it "Daisy"):



I saw this Alexander 163 for sale in a music shop in Washington state at a very low price due to the weird setup. Got it palletized and shipped cross-country and had it converted to normal thumb-operated setup for the 5th valve. One of the best Alexes I've ever played.





Essentially managed to sell my Eastman to fund the purchase of one of my dream F tubas, an Alexander 157. It's a little newer vintage with a slightly larger bell (ca. 1980s). All gold brass. I installed a quint-length slide on the fifth valve to get a nice in-tune low Bb.



And the two Alexanders next to each other:



==============

So, today, the stable consists of the Alex 163 CC, the Piggy, the Alex F, and a Besson 15" bell compensating Eb (I actually have two, and will be selling one soon, still percolating on that prospect). For outdoor gigs, I have the Daisyphone and a King 2341 BBb with a recording bell, which is pretty fun to play. Oh yeah, and an old Besson New Standard euph for when I am occasionally asked to play euph, and a few trombones, helicons, turn-of-the-century E-flats, and lots of other weird stuff.

[tubatodd]

@arpthark that's.....a lot of tubas. You certainly have G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome....for the uninitiated). I thought I had quite a bit of turnover, having had 9 tubas since 1995. But I guess that's not too bad.

I do enjoy seeing pictures and stories of other's tubas. Keep 'em coming.

Looks like a couple of you took the "New Tuba Day" and made it more of a "My Tuba History" thread. Not a complaint. I like it. Perhaps I will dig up some pictures and post my history. Quite a few horns were BSP.....Before Smart Phones. So my picture history may be grainy film pictures....if I have them at all.

[tubanh84]

@arpthark
Still got it. Still point and shoot. I thought when I got my 184-5U I'd part with the Gnagey and my MW182 F and just have a stable of one horn, but the 184 fits really well in between the two other horns, and the intonation and ease of playing on the Gnagey is so good that I keep using it more than the other two. (And as good as the 184 is, it doesn't sing like the 182). My wife completely understands how "I need to buy this 184. I'll sell the other two" turned into "they really all do have their own niche." She ABSOLUTELY doesn't give me a side-eye when telling friends we have THREE WHOLE TUBAS in the house. And to smooth things over, I've offered to teach her tuba so they can be OUR tubas.

[arpthark]

@arpthark that's.....a lot of tubas. You certainly have G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome....for the uninitiated). I thought I had quite a bit of turnover, having had 9 tubas since 1995. But I guess that's not too bad.

I do enjoy seeing pictures and stories of other's tubas. Keep 'em coming.

Looks like a couple of you took the "New Tuba Day" and made it more of a "My Tuba History" thread. Not a complaint. I like it. Perhaps I will dig up some pictures and post my history. Quite a few horns were BSP.....Before Smart Phones. So my picture history may be grainy film pictures....if I have them at all.

A lot of it was just buying and flipping. I basically (somehow) supported myself during the summers of my master's degree by travelling around the entire Southeast and buying and selling tubas (essentially from Texas to North Carolina, while being based in Louisville, KY). That is basically what I do now as a side business (see signature). That endeavor is where essentially everything on my list from the first Piggy down to the Miraphone 188 originated. I had just graduated with a performance degree but with 0 passion to continue playing or performing due to some lingering dystonia-ish symptoms and general burnout, so I decided to sell that PT-6 and use the funds to try out a ton of different horns and sell them for a modest profit.

I don't view myself as a "gear-head." Mostly just a "gear flipper." I'm not fussy about it, don't have a lot of mouthpieces or gadgets... just a lot of tubas stowed out in my barn which are in various stages of being fixed or taken apart. Maybe I'm in denial.

Anyway, sorry to derail the point of the thread a bit, but I have had a lot of New Tuba Days in the past, not all of which were documented anywhere!

[tubatodd]

Anyway, sorry to derail the point of the thread a bit, but I have had a lot of New Tuba Days in the past, not all of which were documented anywhere!

No problem at all.

[Oedipoes]

Picture from 2013 ...
From left to right:
- B&F kaiser BBb, still in unrestored condition in this picture, the only one I still own from this picture
- Melton 2145 CC engraved 'Jon Sass', goldbrass bell, great compact tuba but my brains don't work in CC so I sold it again
- Willson 3100 RZ-4 BBb, the only tuba I have bought brand new so far, great sound and intonation, but very heavy and slow-ish rotax valves, sold to fund a goldbrass Miraphone Norwegian Star Eb + an older Conn 36K sousaphone

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[anadmai]

NTD.jpg

This Yamaha YEB-632IIS tuba was new,

Gorgeous!!!

[sdloveless]

Better view of the "music room" dominated by basses, amps and cabinets.

I believe I spy a G&L headstock in there. Mine is a Fullerton Deluxe LB-100, and I previously had a US-made Kiloton. The kiddo plays a Fallout. I always say, "If you're going to play one of Leo's basses, play his best basses."

[tubatodd]

@sdloveless Yes I have 7 or 8 G&L tribute series basses. They are awesome.

[Craig F]

Took delivery of this one last Saturday. I'm a Horn player who doubles on Baritone/Euphonium. This is my first real Tuba.

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[tubatodd]

Took delivery of this one last Saturday. I'm a Horn player who doubles on Baritone/Euphonium. This is my first real Tuba.

F281 front.jpeg

That's fantastic! Congratulations. That's an awesome new horn....err...I mean tuba.

[Mary Ann]

Took delivery of this one last Saturday. I'm a Horn player who doubles on Baritone/Euphonium. This is my first real Tuba.

F281 front.jpeg

Oh, now you've done it! I've gone from one horn to four tubas. They multiply, you know.

[Craig F]

Oh, now you've done it! I've gone from one horn to four tubas. They multiply, you know.

Oh, I know! I've even started collecting Woodwinds.

This rounds out my Euphonium Quartet.
Mirafone 35W 4-valve Alto
King 625 Baritone
Mirafone 1258A Euphonium
Miraphone F281 Firebird F Tuba.

[Mary Ann]

well I have an oboe and a Cor Anglais, but found bassoon to be not ergonomically feasible, so I have to stop at just those two. Contrabassoon would have been cool though.