Re: A. Heinel "Dresden Model Kaiser-Bass" Eb - info sought
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2024 9:13 am
Just a bit of a post-mortem, if anyone is curious how this little German Eb tuba performed in its first concert in probably 50 or 60 years at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, KY:
With a very large Euro shank receiver but a tiny bore of .610" or so, it's kind of a paradox. I found it to be an extreme air hog, but the small bore meant that it was challenging to get a large/loud sound out of it. The end result was that I was doing a whole lot of work without a ton of sound to show for it. That said, I did the best I could without getting too blatty/splatty. I was using a Sellmansberger Imperial in it, but if the receiver were swapped out and a very shallow contrabass trombone mouthpiece were used instead, I think this tuba would make an excellent cimbasso substitute.
Playing a few marches and with a larger tuba section beside me, I decided to do the upper divisi on tunes like Stars & Stripes, which was fun.
What was not fun was intonation. I found that I had to ride the first valve slide pretty regularly and use 4th for Bb in the staff (otherwise about 30-40c sharp). D in the staff was also about 30-40c flat, mitigated somewhat by using 1+3.
Overall, I would rate it as "functional" and I am okay with it being kept in another state at my parents' house. Unfortunately, the Buescher helicon did not materialize for use on the horse-drawn bandwagon, but if I can get that working for next year, I will have something a bit beefier to play at the concert and on the parade wagon as well. As it were, I borrowed a 36K for the wagon.
With a very large Euro shank receiver but a tiny bore of .610" or so, it's kind of a paradox. I found it to be an extreme air hog, but the small bore meant that it was challenging to get a large/loud sound out of it. The end result was that I was doing a whole lot of work without a ton of sound to show for it. That said, I did the best I could without getting too blatty/splatty. I was using a Sellmansberger Imperial in it, but if the receiver were swapped out and a very shallow contrabass trombone mouthpiece were used instead, I think this tuba would make an excellent cimbasso substitute.
Playing a few marches and with a larger tuba section beside me, I decided to do the upper divisi on tunes like Stars & Stripes, which was fun.
What was not fun was intonation. I found that I had to ride the first valve slide pretty regularly and use 4th for Bb in the staff (otherwise about 30-40c sharp). D in the staff was also about 30-40c flat, mitigated somewhat by using 1+3.
Overall, I would rate it as "functional" and I am okay with it being kept in another state at my parents' house. Unfortunately, the Buescher helicon did not materialize for use on the horse-drawn bandwagon, but if I can get that working for next year, I will have something a bit beefier to play at the concert and on the parade wagon as well. As it were, I borrowed a 36K for the wagon.
