Posted by Rick Denney on April 19, 2001 at 10:49:58:
In Reply to: Re: German F syndrome posted by Jay Bertolet on April 19, 2001 at 08:19:06:
My first guess would be that the horns with the better low register seem to have a really short leadpipe. The horns that are worst are the rotary F's with the long leadpipe that wanders around the upper branches before finally finding the fifth (or sixth) valve.
Both Yamahas have leadpipes that point straight into the valves.
The PT's seem to be in the middle, and seem to have a bit better reputation than some of the older German designs in that register. But their leadpipes are still long compared to the Yamahas. The Willson, conversely, has a short leadpipe like the bigger Yamaha, and I found the low notes on that horn to be solid and not at all like the "typical" German F tuba.
I don't know how this scales up to contrabass tubas. The low F on my York Master just billows out of the horn, and it's a lot harder to get a full sound on the low F of the Miraphone. This is the equivalent note to the C on an F tuba, but the comparison is hard for me because the low notes on a contrabass require other skills that I struggle with.
Some of the old American-style front-action Eb tubas have lovely low registers. But my even older Missenharter Eb-cum-F is fuzzy and uncentered on the low Eb, D, and Db, though it is a great low C. It's a saxhorn-style instrument with top-action valves, but with a straight-in leadpipe that's as short as on my Yamaha. But it has a collection of potential problems that might be causing the fuzziness on those notes.
Rick "whose observations aren't much beyond guessing" Denney