New Tuba Day
Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2025 8:57 pm
This week I bought my first CC tuba. Last year I started playing an EEb tuba (Yamaha 632SII), fell in love with its "singing" voice, and decided to start taking tuba more seriously. But I don't love playing my BBb tuba (King 2341) even though there's nothing "wrong" with it. It tends toward sounding gravelly, and its sound when played softly has never inspired me. Maybe a different BBb tuba would be wonderful, but I decided to take the leap into CC tubas in pursuit of a clearer "singing" voice akin to what my EEb tuba enables. And this CC tuba is one that I actually want to play.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/KDunaYvifN4TrQnK9
It's a Willson 3060-FA5 "Merlin", a demo instrument with a few hard miles on it (some minor dents and scratches, plus a minor bell crease). I wouldn't be surprised if several of you have played this exact instrument. And thank you for that -- your scattered comments were enough to nudge me in the right direction. I was looking for a 4/4 or 5/4 instrument with clean tone and good enough intonation to avoid slide calisthenics. This instrument delivers.
The only note that poses any intonation challenge is the A at the bottom of the staff; 12 is quite sharp, but 3 works well. Its useful dynamic range is exceptional. It plays cleanly at very low volumes, and I haven't yet managed to overblow it; lip discomfort kicks in first. As an aside, since there's a dearth of information about this model I should mention that the first valve is vented. (I chuckle every time I see the 20,mm - 0.807” 5th valve bore spec blindly copied from https://www.willson.ch/en/content/news/c-tuba-merlin ; it's ostensibly 20.5mm.)
As for tone, to my ears it sings, but a bit less than my EEb tuba. While playing the CC tuba my perception is that it is brighter, but my son begged to differ, so I had him play some scales on both so I could listen. He's right that the CC tuba is actually darker (foggy in his terminology). I suspect my differing perception while playing has to do with where my ears are relative to the bells (EEb/CC: right /left, further/closer).
Of the 5 mouthpieces I've tried with this tuba so far, all worked reasonably well, but the Denis Wick 2.5CC is the clear winner so far. I'll keep experimenting. (I love my Sellmansberger Imperial on the EEb, but still haven't managed to purchase Orchestra Grand, Symphony, nor Euro shank from Houser.)
I was optimistic regarding water removal, based on pictures that show four water keys in the obvious places. And indeed, water removal is reasonable. No rotations are necessary, though water does accumulate in low spots just below the valves. But it's easy to drain those catches down to the water keys by pressing the valves down and rocking the instrument to my right. Draining the fifth valve loop looks to be a bigger project, but so far I haven't had to deal with that. In summary, far better than the King 2341, not quite as easy as the Yamaha 632SII.
There are a couple things I don't love about this tuba. The valves work very well, but holy cow are the piston springs strong! Today during practice I didn't notice it as much, but the first two days I felt nontrivial finger fatigue, which should be something only double bass players worry about. I have to wonder how that will affect fast technical playing once I adjust.
And now let's talk about cases. This tuba came with a gig bag that is way too big, likely a random bag that was "big enough". This is the first brass instrument I've ever owned that lacked a hard case, and I'm not happy about it. My BBb (King) has a monstrously large case (Gator?), bulky enough that I could understand using a gig bag as the lesser evil. But my EEb (Yamaha) is actually heavier than the CC, yet the case is well designed and quite practical. A practical hard case seems eminently possible, but no such case exists. I gave serious thought this week to learning the nuances of carbon fiber case construction (already have the CAD/CNC capabilities for mold making and a vacuum press setup), but instead decided to get a Cronkhite gig bag order going. If this tuba weren't already dinged up it would have been really hard to accept the likelihood of dents during routine transport.
Anyway, I think it's time to find a new home for my BBb, because I don't expect to play it anymore. Will this be my first and last CC? Hard to say; it feels like we're in a new era that enables precise, principled computer-model-based design rather than semi-blind iterative refinement. The Willson 3060-FA5 is really good, but perhaps the Eastman EBC834
(https://www.tubaforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=10728) will be even better. And then a tuba yet better may come along. That said, to the extent that I hit limits playing tuba, I expect to be the weak link rather than this tuba.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/KDunaYvifN4TrQnK9
It's a Willson 3060-FA5 "Merlin", a demo instrument with a few hard miles on it (some minor dents and scratches, plus a minor bell crease). I wouldn't be surprised if several of you have played this exact instrument. And thank you for that -- your scattered comments were enough to nudge me in the right direction. I was looking for a 4/4 or 5/4 instrument with clean tone and good enough intonation to avoid slide calisthenics. This instrument delivers.
The only note that poses any intonation challenge is the A at the bottom of the staff; 12 is quite sharp, but 3 works well. Its useful dynamic range is exceptional. It plays cleanly at very low volumes, and I haven't yet managed to overblow it; lip discomfort kicks in first. As an aside, since there's a dearth of information about this model I should mention that the first valve is vented. (I chuckle every time I see the 20,mm - 0.807” 5th valve bore spec blindly copied from https://www.willson.ch/en/content/news/c-tuba-merlin ; it's ostensibly 20.5mm.)
As for tone, to my ears it sings, but a bit less than my EEb tuba. While playing the CC tuba my perception is that it is brighter, but my son begged to differ, so I had him play some scales on both so I could listen. He's right that the CC tuba is actually darker (foggy in his terminology). I suspect my differing perception while playing has to do with where my ears are relative to the bells (EEb/CC: right /left, further/closer).
Of the 5 mouthpieces I've tried with this tuba so far, all worked reasonably well, but the Denis Wick 2.5CC is the clear winner so far. I'll keep experimenting. (I love my Sellmansberger Imperial on the EEb, but still haven't managed to purchase Orchestra Grand, Symphony, nor Euro shank from Houser.)
I was optimistic regarding water removal, based on pictures that show four water keys in the obvious places. And indeed, water removal is reasonable. No rotations are necessary, though water does accumulate in low spots just below the valves. But it's easy to drain those catches down to the water keys by pressing the valves down and rocking the instrument to my right. Draining the fifth valve loop looks to be a bigger project, but so far I haven't had to deal with that. In summary, far better than the King 2341, not quite as easy as the Yamaha 632SII.
There are a couple things I don't love about this tuba. The valves work very well, but holy cow are the piston springs strong! Today during practice I didn't notice it as much, but the first two days I felt nontrivial finger fatigue, which should be something only double bass players worry about. I have to wonder how that will affect fast technical playing once I adjust.
And now let's talk about cases. This tuba came with a gig bag that is way too big, likely a random bag that was "big enough". This is the first brass instrument I've ever owned that lacked a hard case, and I'm not happy about it. My BBb (King) has a monstrously large case (Gator?), bulky enough that I could understand using a gig bag as the lesser evil. But my EEb (Yamaha) is actually heavier than the CC, yet the case is well designed and quite practical. A practical hard case seems eminently possible, but no such case exists. I gave serious thought this week to learning the nuances of carbon fiber case construction (already have the CAD/CNC capabilities for mold making and a vacuum press setup), but instead decided to get a Cronkhite gig bag order going. If this tuba weren't already dinged up it would have been really hard to accept the likelihood of dents during routine transport.
Anyway, I think it's time to find a new home for my BBb, because I don't expect to play it anymore. Will this be my first and last CC? Hard to say; it feels like we're in a new era that enables precise, principled computer-model-based design rather than semi-blind iterative refinement. The Willson 3060-FA5 is really good, but perhaps the Eastman EBC834
(https://www.tubaforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=10728) will be even better. And then a tuba yet better may come along. That said, to the extent that I hit limits playing tuba, I expect to be the weak link rather than this tuba.