Stopped by Baltimore Brass Company

[the elephant]

Was in the area for work so I swung by to see what the shop is like since pictures usually don’t do a place justice.

I bought a new copy of Blazevich, as I sold my old one probably 15+ years ago (and I think I paid about $7 for it in the early 1990s, it’s $17 now, just anecdotal), and I bought a tee shirt from them for simply letting me mill around for a few minutes right before closing shop. It’s a pretty cool tee anyhow.

I didn’t want to hold anyone up and I didn’t have a mouthpiece, so no spreading of cooties via leadpipe were undertaken.

A few things to note:

They had the Canadian Brass version of the Getzen G-50. That similar formula of ~0.689 inch bore, 19” bell with lots of pancake, and a compact wrap just screams “do-it-all” tuba. If I didn’t own a variant of this type, I’d be deep into consideration. Price was reasonable. These horns just look right. I’m glad Lee Stofer* is building these still. If only we had a USA based manufacturer willing to do the same and maintain some QA/QC…

They have a few F tubas on the shop floor that aren’t on the website, including a Rudy.

I was impressed by the build quality of the JP instruments. While I’ve paid attention to what’s been said on this site about JP quality control by several people, I still had reservations based on country of origin. Every JP they had on the floor was a well made instrument, better than most German makers in the 1990s and 2000s were rolling out (Miraphone excluded).

I know this is goofy, but the design of the JP piston F (and the inspirational Meinl Weston) just don’t look right as an F tuba. The had a MW rotor F and that Rudy. The Rudy looked close, but not quite. It would’ve been fun to try each of them, but again, I wasn’t going to be a tire kicker 15 minutes to closing time.

Nice shop and nice guys. Glad to have resources like that in the tuba community.

*A couple of comments about Lee continuing the manufacture of those 4/4 compact CC tubas: they’ve got to be a good overall design or Lee wouldn’t be making them and while the price tag seems high, it’s actually pretty reasonable considering the labor and quality of workmanship being put into those tubas.

[bort2.0]

Youse guys talking about the same tuba here?

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

Played it. HARD PASS. It's a dog.

Also curious what/where you were doing around there for work... I grew up about 2 or 3 miles from the store. (You don't have to answer, or can answer by PM if you choose to. Just curious!)

[matt g]

Youse guys talking about the same tuba here?

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

Played it. HARD PASS. It's a dog.

Also curious what/where you were doing around there for work... I grew up about 2 or 3 miles from the store. (You don't have to answer, or can answer by PM if you choose to. Just curious!)

No. This one:

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

I was at JHUAPL.

[Three Valves]

@matt g Did you have time to get a bite to eat nearby?

If so, where so...

[bort2.0]

Youse guys talking about the same tuba here?

Played it. HARD PASS. It's a dog.

Also curious what/where you were doing around there for work... I grew up about 2 or 3 miles from the store. (You don't have to answer, or can answer by PM if you choose to. Just curious!)

No. This one:

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

I was at JHUAPL.

Thanks for clarifying the tuba thing!

A friend of mine has worked at APL for 20+ years... I think he started in college, and has been there ever since!

[GrecoTrombone]

Good morning Matt,

Thanks for stopping by and for the feedback! We appreciate your time - we know it's limited when on travel. Let us know next time you're coming in if we're short on time and we can put some things to the side for you! That includes a mouthpiece to test as well.

Thanks!

[kingrob76]

Youse guys talking about the same tuba here?

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

Played it. HARD PASS. It's a dog.

Also curious what/where you were doing around there for work... I grew up about 2 or 3 miles from the store. (You don't have to answer, or can answer by PM if you choose to. Just curious!)

No. I was talking about the Willson model.

[bort2.0]

Youse guys talking about the same tuba here?

Played it. HARD PASS. It's a dog.

Also curious what/where you were doing around there for work... I grew up about 2 or 3 miles from the store. (You don't have to answer, or can answer by PM if you choose to. Just curious!)

No. I was talking about the Willson model.

Capisce

[bloke]

LOL...
At first, I read the thread title meaning the wrong way. As an example substitute the store name in the title of the thread for the words "the police".

[arpthark]

Halt, fiend! Unhand those tubas!

[matt g]

Good morning Matt,

Thanks for stopping by and for the feedback! We appreciate your time - we know it's limited when on travel. Let us know next time you're coming in if we're short on time and we can put some things to the side for you! That includes a mouthpiece to test as well.

Thanks!

I appreciate the offer!

Travel for me is often organized chaos, and I didn’t want to subject anyone else to it! Nonetheless, I’ll keep your kind offer in mind the next time I can swing by!

[cthuba]

Was there fairly recently too. I liked the Getzen and the tubby Eb tuba funnily enough.


I still think about that Rudy F. Closest thing to a B&S symfonie… in that I had a hard time putting it down. No tuner in sight for me but my god the sound and feel of the instrument.

[YorkNumber3.0]

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[bloke]

I remember being a young player and judged all tubas on how they played when I blew into them the same way I blew into my 186. I've met some middle-aged players who were also limited in their experience with different tubas and sort of were the same way that I was when I was in my early 20s . I didn't like most tubas. There are still plenty of tubas that I don't care for, but I've learned different ways of blowing into tubas over the decades.
I have a B flat tuba that I built for myself that's not dissimilar from that c instrument. I really like it, but if I've been playing my really large B flat tuba for quite a few weeks, it takes me about 2 or 3 minutes to get used to the one I'm referring to at the beginning of this paragraph. I have to remember how to properly blow into it.

[kingrob76]

Play the horns you play and draw your own conclusions. That particular has been sitting there about a year and a half and is now 40% off from the original listing price, which at the very least I would call relevant supporting information for my own opinion.

[Grumpikins]

When shopping for a horn, it is very important to keep in mind that each instrument is unique. Even within the same model. Just as every person is unique. This includes the persons approach to the horn.

Last fall i dug my 1936 king out of storage (of 20 years) and i have to play/ blow it ( hahaha) completely differently than my mw c. They are both wonderful horns, just very different.

On the flip side, there are also truly bad instruments out there.

Sent from my SM-J327VPP using Tapatalk

[bloke]

I bought a four valve compensating Besson from a professional player who would be recognized that where I to mention their name. I bought it off of eBay, they reached out before shipping it and warned me it was a so-called dog. I took it apart and cleaned it in the mild acid chemical stuff, scrubbed out some chunks that didn't come out via being dissolved, and put it back together. It was a wonderful tuba.

With one tuba seller who sells on consignment, I've seen descriptions saying that blah-blah tuba will receive a chem clean prior to being shipped. That's not usually how I do things, but whatever. Usually I charge somebody to put something in really nice shape on the front end, and then start offering it for sale on consignment.

[PlayTheTuba]

Rant time about the Canadian Brass Willson tuba.

@YorkNumber3.0

The highschool that I went to has 4? of the BBb versions. no exaggeration they're absolutely horrendous. They played too flat for modern tuning standards. Even when the room is hot enough or you took the time to shorten the slides the intonation is atrocious. Plays with an insane amount of resistance too. There's playing a tank but that model of tuba feels like your trying to move a large skyscraper with your lips. Weighed as much as a building too. Even as practice tubas nobody wanted to use them.

The positives, valves were great because nobody used them since the tubas sucked so badly. The slides at the top can be reached easily. The slide second valve slide tubes are a bit tucked in but not a big deal. Despite Yamaha's advertising with their new tuba coming out, this model does feature 2 main tuning slides. The top slide can be easily and comfortably accessed while playing. But as mentioned earlier, even when the room is hot enough it didn't even matter since the notes that needed adjusting were even flatter regardless. So that feature was useless. The top third valve tube is stupid long, so pedal C isn't an issue. Can actually sound decent IF YOU REALLY WORK FOR IT. Well built and had ton of braces.

Even with my tuba in "D's" bad intonation still plays way better and easier to sound decent than that model of Willson tubas. Heck my D tuba is probably better in tune since at least it's not flat "per say." I'm sure the CC tuba version is WAY better than the BBb, seeing as they only added cylindrical tubing to make in BBb at the small tubing side and didn't bother to touch the rest of the bugle.

Objectively, those BBb Wilson tubas is one of if not the worst tubas I've ever played. Even though a Yamaha 641 is LEAGUES better in comparison, I actually like the terrible and awful Willson's more than the 641. I personally despise the 641 and it's copies.

BUT ANY of the more MODERN Willson's I've tried at the Army Band Conference over the years are soooo much better. In my opinion and seems to be shared with most people here Wilson's Eb's are the best tubas they make. The Eb's are soo good they are infact arguably the best Eb's currently made in the market

Though IF I can justify another large tuba purchase I think I'd rather take the risk and ask Gronitz to make me a new Eb tuba... Even though I've never played any Gronitz tuba before...

End rant

[YorkNumber3.0]

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