Gee, I don´t know...
Not playing bass myself, I still find the following convincing:

Choosing gear of individual good quality items in combination with setting those up in meaningful ways seem two of several applaudable skills when it comes to bass playing. Otherwise, bassists and their etude books ...

Our favorite low brass section did another one, this time on Turandot excerpts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szjsgTeDLZo

Enjoy.

Beginning around 1:45, they sound close to french horns, in my opinion...

I started off with Bb trumpet in Bb treble clef, dropped that altogether to transition to BBb tuba in bass clef, dropped that and switched to F-tuba in BC, added CC-tuba and kept those parallel until I threw out the CC in favor of BBb.
The past years, I kept playing both, but really read music (and ...

I use and recommend Poliboy silver polish.
(thick yellowish fluid)
Apply with soft sponge. No rubbing needed: You can apply with gentle taps.

No waiting time needed: the time you need to put down the sponge and grab a cloth to wipe the stuff off will be sufficient.

If less-than-perfect, but still ...

Gocsick, I would have loved to learn more of that one exchange between your son and that famous professor:
What was your son´s response, and did that exchange have any conclusion?

I understand You´re not really seeking advice in this case, since what you describe demonstrates a general tendency in ...

Back in 2003, Melton had a feedback-creating lottery on the Frankfurt Musikmesse.
If you turned in a filled-out form with feedback on some of their products, you could win certain items, the 1st prize being a free ride to ITEC Budapest the following year: Train ticket, Hotel costs and admission fees ...

Bloke put it very on-the-spot. Thanks.
Tip for the PERFECT tuba book:
Have it spiral-bound, so you can read it on a music-stand hands free without it turnig itself to other pages.

Same goes with Real Book, bass clef edition, and all those etude collections.

I´m using Blokepieces on BBb and F tubas.
Upon my first order, I chose two rims: the round one and a flat one with recognisable inner edge.
The latter is collecting dust, the former ha sbeen getting all the face time for years, now.

Oh, I was not doubting the truth of your post.

I always figured the Normaphon was just a craftsman having fun with a trumpet.
I never imagined those horns to be an actual business model and, when internet showed up decades later, never bothered to do a Google-search.

Ours was a "Wunderlich" brand ...

Funny how this "Normaphone" actually is a thing.
We had one of those as part of my dad´s instrument collection, adorning a hallway of our home over 50 years ago.
It was the size of a Bb-trumpet, though.

Voluptuous sound, as always.
And I like the theme of title selection.
May I suggest some chorales for a follow-up album?

- Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen (a song of Advent rather than Christmas, actually)
- Fröhlich soll mein Herze springen
- Es ist ein Ros´, entsprungen
- Ich steh´an Deiner Krippen ...

I don´t have an active FB-account, so I have no idea what people have to say over there.

I DID notice, though, that Gene Pokorny is making fun of people circular-breathing their way through the opening chord of Rheingold (I believe, that was) on his excerpts-CD.

No, I´m not convinced it might earn ...

A person I know has taken the trouble to type his favorite Bordogni etudes into Finale and had the software transpose these into all key signatures and resulting tonal ranges.

You might be interested in the horn he´s playing in these videos.
Yes, that´s a genuine carbon fiber Alex prototype F-tuba. And he says he used it on stage for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL8eJgBsDPk
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Grm8RBXpJBU

YES!! Awesome stuff.

This guy and his colleagues are a pleasure to watch.
Here´s the link to one of his instructional videos on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yllJDyT1C3Y

He´s been teaching tuba at the Mannheim University, AFAIK, and has recently taken the position as Tuba professor at ...

It´s all right... Don´t feel bad.

As with any horn on the market, You´re in good and well informed company if you completely reject a certain horn.
The same is true if You support the completely opposing opinion.

As to sound potential:
Firebird bore increases from 19.5 to 21.5 mm. That´s a lot ...

This is basically following a rising demand (AKA stubbornly resident fad) over here, and I´m ready to admit it has its value, since these combine advantages of both valve systems.

You will be aware of the "Gansch Horn" in both trumpet and flugelhorn versions, as played masterfully by Thomas Gansch ...

Very easy:
Me importing REAL Blokepieces from Bloke and selling them to the Austrian market can´t be forgery, because the customer is getting the real thing.
Me copying Blokepieces myself and selling them as the real thing would be forgery.

Bloke himself outsourcing Blokepiece production from next ...

I don´t mind people testing horns on YT back to back and find those clips just as useful as comparing several different people demonstrating ONE horn.
If their playing is consistent at all, DIFFERENCES in sound quality between two tubas become accessible if played by the same person.
Also, if played ...

Well, I guess "The Elephant" is all set with information he already had composing his original post, then.

It seems to boil down to a decision between 5- and 6/4 variants of closely related models.

All it takes now is an appointment at a large tuba place for test-playing the basic models to set ...