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So what's your favorite/ideal tuba size/ bore? Not relative to ensemble demands; Just playing for yourself.

I normally prefer 4/4 .700 range.

However, I'm finding the 3/4 .625 eb very enjoyable.

Your turn.

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...to use for what piece of music?

I don't know enough to have a preference. Being a amateur hack with a hodge podge of horns, I never really understood the nuance of bore size versus air in and sound out calculus.

I do most of my playing on a Holton sousaphone with a ~0.69" bore. That seems to be a sweet spot for me as the King 1241 I am borrowing is also about there and sounds really good to my ears. It also feels very natural to play.

I do most of my practicing on my 20j which has a 0.775" bore or the Miraphone 186 which is 0.769 or 0.772 depending on which website I look at. Numerically they are closer but feel so different with respect to how they blow and air control.

The Weril CC is 0.67 and I love the way it sounds in the upper register but it is hard (for me) to get a really full sound down low.

How much of my observation comes from design and playing characteristics of the instruments versus my limitations as a musician is a complete mystery to me.

I'm not referring to a specific piece of music. If you had a room full of different tubas, and just went through and noodled on them; what size and bore would you settle on as the most enjoyable to play.

No wrong answers.

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' only wrong questions.

ok then...

"no preference"

Some might possibly be so comfortable with at least four or five instruments (all of which function well enough whereby the player really isn't even aware of there being an instrument) that others may (??) be just like myself - ie. "no preference".


We can't see each other's facial expressions nor hand gestures or posture in these posts...only typed words, so please completely interpret " " as well-meaning.

Were any of my instruments - in particular - substituted with all sorts of other available makes/models, I'm sure that I could easily end up eschewing a particular tuba (of a particular length/size range) due that that instrument being "difficult".

I believe I read where one subscriber recently sacrificed some of their instruments to fund the purchase of ONE instrument - a 6/4 C instrument (imo: the very best and easiest-to-play make/model of all of those). If that's the only tuba they now own (??), that particular model plays easily enough that it can manage (ok: not as well as "the best F tuba") quite a few PARTICULAR pieces of music whereby many would consider them to be "default" F tuba pieces...and (if that player is now down to that one instrument) I suspect they will re-acquire an F tuba - as their finances recover from that amazing aquisition.

...so (as with the facebook-ish sorts of choices)...
- single
- seeing someone
- married
- It's complicated

..."It's complicated."

For noodling, I might even enjoy playing an F tuba. For getting out in public with a band and putting the bass on the sound, I would not enjoy an F tuba. (OK, it's not really true, I did used to play an F helicon in that capacity and it was fun, but that was a pretty hearty F tuba and a pretty small band. I'm using "F tuba" here as an example of something that would by itself appear to be a very fine thing, but in what would for me be a typical context, would just not be all that great.)

Were I a hobbyist/music-lover (with some sort of "normal" type of job), I would only own a sorta-fat-sized B-flat tuba...

...but (as I realize that my own personality defines that I'm - perhaps: ridiculously - picky) it would likely be an extraordinarily fine one...likely: better than I would be able to appreciate.

Mirafone 188

Large ensemble- 5/4

Everything else- Large F

…Waiting to see how my BAT turns out…

As a "hobbyist/music-lover (with some sort of "normal" type of job)", my F is definitely the most fun right now. It's the easiest (of my options) for cello or bassoon music, and nice for playing flute parts. Plenty fun for polkas or dixieland. The bore is small at one end and fairly large at the other, so I don't know what to tell you about that.

Grumpikins wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:34 pm So what's your favorite/ideal tuba size/ bore? Not relative to ensemble demands; Just playing for yourself.

I normally prefer 4/4 .700 range.

However, I'm finding the 3/4 .625 eb very enjoyable.

Your turn.

Sent from my SM-S367VL using Tapatalk

If I was just playing for my own personal fun then I’d play on a small bore and small bell instrument. Something light and not an air hog. Maybe it won’t sound quite as loud as a bigger instrument, but my experience is that they can (with the right driver) be plenty loud enough .

The early UK four valve compensating Eb’s (14” bell) were nice - I’d like one like that but they’re not available - but failing that something like your small non-comp three valve Eb could give a player much to enjoy. My own small (12” bell) three valve Eb is, for me, a joy to play for fun. Choice of instrument key is a bit dependant on what pleases the individual’s ear and the music that lights their particular fire. I’m inclined to opt for Eb as suiting me best, but also think that no particular choice can be perfect - it’s all pragmatic compromise.