Rudolf Meinl Tuba review

[tofu]

The HS ones around here were from Cussed ‘Em. Lots of the “old school” RM 3/4 & 4/4 BBb’s.

There was one school that had a bunch of the 4/4 HB BBb’s. It was a huge powerhouse band school. They’re now a very modest program.

My HS (built for 1800 kids max and when I was there it had 5500 ) in suburban Chicago had Rudys. It was an amazing band. The director was an ex-Navy WWII guy (had 2 ships shot up from under him including Pearl Harbor) and had spent time under Toscanini & Revelli. He very much directed and acted like them - it was intense but the group was superb - made up of a lot of kids of Lyric & CSO members. The Orchestra Director was a tuba player as was the marching band director (both former pros) and I assume that was where the desire to buy Rudy Meinls came from. One assistant band director went on to be chair of the music dept at Ohio State and another at Bowling Green.

The Rudy’s all played differently. They bought a new one when I was a junior and handed it to me. It was a superb horn in all ways. For a Rudy the intonation was surprisingly good. Build (fit and finish) were excellent as were the valves. Glorious sound. The sound was always the first thing noted on judges sheets at the various solo contests I did in HS. The first one the school bought had intonation issues that made playing it a slide pulling extravaganza. The sound wasn’t as nice and it was a horn that did not like bad input, but it could be played well with some effort. The third one was a good horn sound and intonation wise, but it had some fit & finnish issues. They bought a couple more after I graduated to replace some Conn 25j’s. Those Conns were old, but pretty good horns.

We took care of those horns. The school got 45 years out of them. A new director several years ago replaced them with Yammies I wish I had known as I would have tried to buy my old one back and had it restored.

[York-aholic]

slide pulling extravaganza.

[bloke]

I've never played a size four ( defacto 5/4) C of those that was easy to play in tune. I owned one for a few years and actually ended up as a finalist with that thing at auditions a couple of times but - boy - did I have to practice and (to) work out the use of crazy fingerings. I was also trying to play it with those M0 and M1 mouthpieces back then - that some of you claim you like(d). They just weren't doing anything good for me. I sort of consider that era in my tuba playing so-called career to be a detour, and discouraged me from even purchasing another contrabass tuba for several years, once I sold it.

I'm pretty sure that I stated this in the thread earlier, but the easiest one of any size (intonation) that I've ever owned/played was the really large one that they call a size five (defacto 6/4) in C with five valves and a second slide trigger. I reduced the capillary portion of its mouthpipe to a more manageable size, which didn't change the sound and no longer made me feel as though I was the Big Bad Wolf trying to blow down a brick house.

I also owned a size three one in C with five valves (defacto /4), which was easier to play in tune than the size four but still had some of size four intonation quirks, just not as serious.

...so I've owned all three 5-valve C versions, as well as a 4/4 (size three) B-flat and spent significant time with a 6/4 (size five) B-flat. I tooted on the 4/4-size piston C once. Its owner is very fond of it.

I've not encountered either of the F tubas.

If the Rudy F cimbasso is any thing like the Chinese copy of it, the bore size is w-a-y too big. I've been told that the bell of the genuine RM F cimbasso sounds more mellow than the Jinbao knockoff. If that's accurate, I would consider that as an additional drawback, regarding the RM version.

[erdickman]

RM50 and PT7 side by side.....