Rudy 4345

[cjk]

...
* In the late 80s, Bob took the Helleberg Conn to Rudy Meinl, and had him very closely copy his Conn CC, down to some very small details. Lee said that it was as close to the original as you could get without having the original tooling. Unlike the HB, this was even made with a custom built .710 piston valve set, same as the Conn used. The result was called the Perantucci model CC. There were about 12 of them made... General reception was tepid, people all thought it was too small in the bore and overall. This was the early 90s, and the 6/4 tubas were gaining popularity, like the 2165, Nirschl York, the early Neptunes... so focus on a smaller tuba, as nice as it was, just didn't exist. Lee called it "The Rudy nobody knows about." Which is unfortunate, because it sounds like it was an excellent instrument, just not enormous.
....

I believe the 12 RMs you're talking about have a loop in the leadpipe (like a HBS 290 aka HB2). They're pretty easy to identify. I've seen pictures of them, but have never seen one in person.

[cjk]

I would love to try one of these:
https://reverb.com/item/20740555-rudolf ... ver-plated

[BuddyRogersMusic]

https://tuba88.net/img/pict/Rudolfmeinl_C_2.jpg

Photo credit to the Japanese site, Tuba88. I like looking at all the models I've yet to lay hands on.

[cjk]

Yet another, slightly different than the previous two.

[MikeMason]

The silver reverb one is a steal

[bort2.0]

The silver reverb one is a steal

was

And I believe that's the one that ended up in Lee's shop for a once-over... and was quickly resold (consignment?) at a much more believable price.

[arpthark]

What's the B&S looking flange/brace doohickey on that silver Reverb Rudi?

[BuddyRogersMusic]

That is the tuba Lee purchased and re-sold to a customer a few years ago. He had Rudi make a fifth valve assembly for it, which was an option. Lee thought the added flanges were part of a music lyre system that the band used. He might have found out more about it.

[bloke]

I continue to "C" things that might tempt me right back into the "sea world", but - with a really nice-playing 17.5mm bore B-flat, a really nice-playing 21.2mm B-flat (6/4) and (stuck together enough to play) a promising 18.5mm/19.5 bore compensating B-flat, I look at things (such as these) that look really tempting, take a deep breath, turn around in my chair, look at the really nice (B-flat) equipment sitting right behind me, and stop thinking about my "past".

[Lee Stofer]

I purchased the Rudolf Meinl Perantucci model CC tuba on Reverb several years ago, which was at a music
store in Copenhagen, Denmark. They did a good job packing and shipping it, and it arrived undamaged. The
tuba had a Kariso hard case, and had an unususal metal attachment or two, which I think had to do with marching
band use. The hard case needed new wheels, but the horn itself only needed a good cleaning and polishing to be
returned to it's former glory. Still, I remembered that when they came out in about 1988, that an alternate lower
main tuning slide was available, which was also the plug-in 5th valve slide & lever. I ordered the unit from Rudi, received
it in raw brass, fitted it to the horn and then had it silver-plated by Anderson Plating. I took it out and played it for
my Christmas season, and it was just delicious. A certain well-known tubist in Hawaii purchased this tuba from me, and
seems to be delighted with it.

In February 1995, when I got to spend two weeks at the Rudolf Meinl factory working, and learning just how much I didn't
know, they were working on their own version of a piston CC tuba. It had a larger, .750"-ish valve bore, and was a very
clean and straightforward design. They asked me to play-test it one day, and one of the earlier leadpipe trials had a
leadpipe on there that was so large that I could hardly get anything to speak on the soft end of the spectrum. They quickly
came up with a bit more user-friendly mouthpipe. In my second week, Rex Martin came and visited the Meinls, play-tested
a couple of these horns, and I think he took one home with him.

In 2002, I was out of the Army, and asked Rudolf Meinl, Jr. if he would come to ITEC in Greensboro, NC that year, and I could
help him exhibit. He said the he could not come to ITEC that year, but he and Rudi, Sr. prepared a half-dozen tubas and shipped
them to me to exhibit for them, one of them being a Rudolf Meinl 4345 rotor CC.

The term "4345" comes from Rudolf Meinl's sytem of model identification; with this tuba, Rudolf Meinl considered the piston CC
and rotor CC valve size to be that of a RM 3/4 contrabass tuba, about .750", and a Rudolf Meinl 3/4 CC has a 43cm bell diameter,
and correspondig body. A Rudi 4/4 contrabass tuba has an approx. .830" valve bore and 45cm bell diameter. They felt that they
were installing a 3/4-sized valveset on a 4/4 body, and therefore named it the 4345.

So, the Rudolf Meinl 4345 piston and rotor CC's are quite a bit different from the Helleberg Conn copies. My favorite of the two is
the 4345 rotor CC, which to me plays like what I'd imagine a York 4/4 CC with a 5-rotor valveset to be. It was nimble, agile, not
too difficult to fill up, but with plenty of sound to balance any orchestra, with power to spare.

I took that ITEC 2002 Rudi 4345 rotor tuba to a concert shortly thereafter, and after the gig in the parking lot, a trumpet-playing
colleague said to me, "Lee, I'm sure that instrument is really clean inside." "Why do you say that," I asked. He replied, "because,
the way you were blowing it, there couldn't possibly be anything left inside." In reality, I didn't have to work that hard - that horn
was just super-efficient. One Mr. Dickman, who lives out west, bought that special tuba.

[arpthark]

If @Lee Stofer wrote a book on this kind of thing, I would buy it in a heartbeat. Always so interesting when you share your knowledge, Lee.

[erdickman]

The tuba on the right is the 4345 rotary that Lee is referring to...it truly is a "special" tuba....for reference, the one on the left is the 5/4 Rudy C tuba in rose brass..They are both wonderful instruments with a truly gorgeous sound quality.