VMI 132 CC Tuba (Dillon)

[tubatodd]

I've never seen one of these
https://www.dillonmusic.com/products/us ... -sn-274923
$3,495

[arpthark]

Nice! Basically a MW 32 but with a B&S thumb ring and without the fancy 3B linkages. I think @bort2.0 used to play one.

edit: looks like the long/2-step fifth valve, as well. For these B&S-family horns with M-shaped fifth valve circuits, you can adjust the middle crook of the M with extension tubing to make it a flat whole step or Miraphone-style sharp major third length. I had the extension on my PT-6 (never used it though).

[prodigal]

So, in sound, is it like a 188?

[bort2.0]

Nice! Basically a MW 32 but with a B&S thumb ring and without the fancy 3B linkages. I think @bort2.0 used to play one.

edit: looks like the long/2-step fifth valve, as well. For these B&S-family horns with M-shaped fifth valve circuits, you can adjust the middle crook of the M with extension tubing to make it a flat whole step or Miraphone-style sharp major third length. I had the extension on my PT-6 (never used it though).

Nice! I owned the 4-valve version of this, bought it at BBC around 2003 or 2004. Mine said VMI, but some were also stenciled as Sternberg. I haven't seen many of these at all over the last 20 years.

This tuba has the same body and bows as the MW-30/32 (30 = 4 valve, 32 = 5 valve), and has a B&S valve section. It did not have the 3B system, but was just fine and quiet enough.

The 3rd and 4th valve slides both stick straight up from the back of the tuba, making it a little awkward to get to the 1st valve slide (which, you need a little more for the low range on a 4 valve CC tuba).

It was a good tuba, well worth the price, and I enjoyed playing it. Overall a solid "this is a CC tuba" kind of tuba, that does everything it needs to do. Intonation was decent, low range was all there. But I would say that the playing experience was a bit rigid.

Is it like a 188? To me -- no, and it's not even close. The VMI has nothing wrong with it, but I just like the 188 that much more. I was using the VMI several days/week before I look a band tour to Austria, and borrowed a local pro's 188. I was immediately in love with the 188... It was easier to play, prettier sound, extremely easy projection, and with the tight wrap and short top bow, the 188 was (and still is) the most comfortable-to-hold tuba out there.

When I got home from Austria, I started looking for a replacement for the VMI (which ended up being a very good Miraphone 1291, a tuba that I kept longer than any other I've owned). Years later, I finally bought my own 188, which you all know, was one of my favorite all-time tubas.

@arpthark the PT-6 that I owned had the long 5th extension tubing as well. The one shown here is more of the M style, where it's up above the valve section. On the PT-6, it was long and skinny and plunged low, behind the valves themselves on the back of the horn. The PT-3 that I played in college also had it like this, and was how I learned to play CC tuba. But on the PT-6, the extra 1lb of tubing kind of deadened the resonance of the horn, and it played far better with the shorter fifth valve tubing.

Anyway, this VMI is a pretty good tuba and it's priced well.

[bort2.0]

To restate it more clearly --

I hope you don't need to get to the first valve slide.

[bort2.0]

If I had the $, I'd probably buy this and I'm sure I would be happy with it.

I went back and listened to some.recorsings from when I used this. It really was a good sounding tuba. I bet I could play it better NOW then I did back THEN.

[Timtamtuba]

If I had the $, I'd probably buy this and I'm sure I would be happy with it.

I went back and listened to some.recorsings from when I used this. It really was a good sounding tuba. I bet I could play it better NOW then I did back THEN.

It says it takes an American shank, is that true? That seems odd considering these are a GDR era design. Im curious if they use the same lead pipe as the Meinl weston 32

[bort2.0]

I'm pretty sure mine was a standard shank as well, but it's been too long...

But for this horn, Matt Walters says it's standard shank... So you better believe it's standard shank.

[tubanh84]

If I had the $, I'd probably buy this and I'm sure I would be happy with it.

I went back and listened to some.recorsings from when I used this. It really was a good sounding tuba. I bet I could play it better NOW then I did back THEN.

I had the same experience with my MW 2155. When I was 19, it was fine, but I NEEDED a bigger tuba. So I traded it for a Rudy 5/4. Then changed that out to a PT6. Now I'm on the Gnagey. Looking back, the 2155 was all the CC tuba I ever needed. I got to play a MW 2000 a few years ago and it confirmed that I was insane for getting rid of my 2155. But at the time I didn't play as well as I do now, so I wasn't getting everything out of it that it offered. Would love to spend some time with a 2155 again.

Having said that, I've also always been intrigued by these VMIs.

But I like my current horns, so I don't want to give any up. It's a puzzle.