My Tuba & I, Post Yours & You

[Schlepporello]

3 in the living room,1 in the extra bedroom and 2 in the garage. There's always room for 1 more (almost).

[Doc]

I know where I can pick up a 321 for $1800 locally.

By the way, I almost bought it for myself just so it would have a good home. But I already have 6 tubas in a 2-bedroom house.

You must have bunk beds.
Tim

Built with tubafours.

[MN_TimTuba]

By the way, I almost bought it for myself just so it would have a good home. But I already have 6 tubas in a 2-bedroom house.

You must have bunk beds.
Tim

Built with tubafours.

[bloke]

I've already posted two pictures with two tubas...but here's a third with a third tuba.
I pulled out the F tuba (plenty loud, and no tuba is going to compete with an organ - with all the stops pulled out) for The Saint-Saëns "Organ" Symphony tonight (two shows), and for a new overture - with a part mostly written in and at the top of the staff.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 8339803553

More interesting (possibly...??) is how spread out is the low brass section to this orchestra.
Needless to say, we can never "hang", unless it's for a meal in the city where the venue is located.
(The two farthest-apart gents live over a 5-hrs. drive away from each other...)

[Mithosphere]

Playing the OTS in a group I've never played with because I was told they needed a tuba player.

[jtm]

The Blokespecial 186

This looks taller than my 188, somehow.

[York-aholic]

The Blokespecial 186

This looks taller than my 188, somehow.

It’s all in the camera angle (and camera distortion up close).

I’ve had the most luck standing farther away and zooming in rather than just standing close...

[the elephant]

[jtm]

The 188 is shorter than the 186 by a couple of inches.

Ah. Thanks. I didn't realize that. The only 186 I had to compare it with is BBb with a Yamaha bell. The 188 does seem really compact, though.

[the elephant]

I deleted that comment because the currently made 186 and 188 are the same length, I think. I think the original 188 and the classic 186 *might* have been a little different in length, but can't really remember. The one photo I have of the next to one another shows them to be the same, but I do not remember that being the case.

Anyway, that is why my comment disappeared. I think it was incorrect.

[bort2.0]

I deleted that comment because the currently made 186 and 188 are the same length, I think. I think the original 188 and the classic 186 *might* have been a little different in length, but can't really remember. The one photo I have of the next to one another shows them to be the same, but I do not remember that being the case.

Anyway, that is why my comment disappeared. I think it was incorrect.

This is the best resource I've seen for Miraphone comparisons:

http://www.daveamason.com/mirafone/cctubas.html

This could be the same one Wade is thinking about, because these are also vintage instruments.

[UncleBeer]

CK 2021 b.jpg (165.71 KiB) Viewed 1641 times

[arpthark]

Me (far left), the Eastman 832 CC, and my brass ensemble at the Stonington Lobster Trap Tree this past winter...



The lead cornet player is a brass bandsman since age 9 and a very fine player.

The other tuba player is playing a Weril 3/4 BBb.

Mostly submarine engineers... and me, with the token music degree.

It was very cold, and I was using a clear plastic Kellyberg while everyone else's lips froze off.

[Tubajug]

The day I brought home my Martin Mammoth:



Years ago, my Holton (bell on a King 2341) with my son Holton:



My Martin Medium Eb helicon:



Previously posted in this thread, but just so they're all here in one place, my Franken Eb:

[bort2.0]

The day I brought home my Martin Mammoth:

Caption: "It's a major award!"

[arpthark]

Principal Sousaphonist and Assistant Principal Sousaphonist, Mystic, CT Spring Stroll.

[bloke]

Principal Sousaphonist and Assistant Principal Sousaphonist, Mystic, CT Spring Stroll.

Daisy BB-gun

[Grumpikins]

1936 king Bb. 1996ish Meinl Weston 2145.

Sent from my SM-J327VPP using Tapatalk

[arpthark]

This kinda doesn't count since it's not my tuba, but here's the bandwagon at the parade, Great American Brass Band Festival 2024, Danville, KY.

[tofu]

This kinda doesn't count since it's not my tuba, but here's the bandwagon at the parade, Great American Brass Band Festival 2024, Danville, KY.

The 2 times I’ve done the Great American Brass Band Festival - maybe 20 years ago - there was a brass band on top a large elephant for the parade. Do they still do that?
The bass drummer was way at the back facing backward - with the big bass drum resting on the giant pachyderm butt -just above the tail. Not where I personally would want to sit.


I subbed several times in an actual circus band way on top an actual circus wagon back during the days of the fantastic circus parades in downtown Milwaukee - sponsored by Schlitz Beer (The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous).


12 guys packed shoulder to shoulder to the 12 inch side rail - perched precariously 12 feet up in the air - it always felt like you were going to get jolted over board. Helicon and myself - sandwiched next to the rail & the 2 drummers who weighed a combined 700 lbs all jammed on a bench that was maybe six inches above the floor - you couldn’t bend your legs underneath and the row in front of you was so close that your knees were jammed in the back of the guys packed in front of you. Those circus band guys back in the day did not lead an easy life. I always prayed we got 8 calm horses and a good handler - which we did but I saw several times where other wagons the horses got spooked and the handler almost lost control with the wagon coming close to tipping over. That parade was wild - maybe 40 circus wagons from the Circus Museum up in Baraboo, WI which originally was the summer home of Ringling Brothers. All kinds of exotic animals - they even had large tigers on dog leashes walking the parade route - going right up to people - as well as a hippopotamus walking the route on his own - just a guy walking behind him using voice control. They must have drawn a hundred thousand people along the route - it was always 12 deep for the whole route. Even one large circus wagon with a 40 horse hitch and 40 piece band - just amazing seeing them turn the corner on Wisconsin Ave. - one guy handling the reins for 40 horses. Merle Evans who led the Barnum & Bailey Band for 50 years and never missing a performance was always on hand for the parade even in his 90’s. He’d do a circus routine concert the week before with my group - wonderful guy.

They’d run a long train down from Baraboo using the only remaining running CNW steam engine 1285 - which was housed at the Mid-Continent Rail Museum also in Baraboo. All the wagons, animals, a couple of Mack Trucks from the 1915 -1925 era, front end loaders, the huge three ring circus tent, all the circus performers / workers and best of all the steam calliope circus wagon that they managed to run steam to played the entire train route -which went all the way from Baraboo to Northern Illinois and then back up to Milwaukee. They then set up and had a 3 ring circus for the week before the parade in downtown Milwaukee along Lake Michigan. Ernest Borgnine - who had some kind of circus connection that I can’t recall always came and marched as a clown. It’s a shame it all had to end. You certainly couldn’t walk live tigers on dog leashes down Wisconsin Ave these days - much less have a hippo wandering along on his own accord.