Posted by jon schultz on August 08, 2002 at 11:22:27:
Well, this past tues. I went over to Custom Music- mostly to try out some PT22's (Eb). Fred was there and got the horns down, nice guy- real eager to help. So I played a couple of them and found that they felt-not played pretty similar to my 983Eb. I didn't think the low range was as dark as my horn, and the whole sound was very 'spread'. (Kind of like comparing a 186 and a G50). For those F players out there, the closest I can relate it too would be to the Yamaha 822F. Well, I do prefer a bit more 'core' in my sound, and the price was too steep so I decided to keep looking around...
Just because I was there, I tried out some big CC tubas. I felt from the 9 or so PT's I played, was that the rotary horns play smoother and sound darker than their piston horns (just my impression). There was a PT6 there that really played nice. Still had that 'subwoofer' rumble down low. Nice horn, nice sound.
After that, I went down to Ypsilanti to try out Mike Grant's Wilson Eb. A real great guy, we switched tubas and played duets for over an hour. The Wilson Eb has a real dark sound and a great low range, but I felt it maybe sacrificed some flexibility in the high register to have that great bottom. It still had a good high range, but it didn't have the warmer tone up high like my 983 did- which I have to admit, dosen't have that awesome low range, but still a pretty good one. They're both great horns, but just because I do more high range playing I think that my 983 is better suited for what I do at this time.
just my two cents...