Posted by Rick Denney on December 10, 2001 at 16:06:39:
In Reply to: The New and Improving Brook Mays posted by Gary Press on December 09, 2001 at 16:45:14:
As it happens, I was in Dallas myself last week, and celebrated the last-minute cancellation of a meeting by meeting Mark at the TubaStore on Friday. I played quite a few instruments, even though I was really having a bad day (too little sleep on that trip--can't play the tuba when I'm exhausted). My impressions come from my perspective as a hobbiest, but they are not that much different than yours.
I had played a Willson F some time ago, and loved it for big-F applications. This Eb played well, but it didn't sing to me, and didn't play easily enough so that I could sing to it. The Miraphone 181 F was better--MUCH better--with a singing sound and a great response. It's a rotary F and sounds like one, and, yes, that low C has to be coaxed a little. I also tried a Meinl-Westion 45SLP F tuba, and though it was between the Miraphone and the Willson, if that makes any sense at all. It was easy enough to play, but it did not inspire me to make music on it. It could have been my own mood at the time.
I kept coming back to the Miraphone 191, which was the instrument I really wanted to try, having never before had the opportunity. It's a big-bore rotary tuba with a compact wrap and a short, fat bell. I think I'd have liked it better if I moved more air. The bore isn't that much bigger than my York, but the Miraphone just didn't have the easy response the York gives me. It did have the big sound, however; nothing like the laser-beam 186 sound.
The 2145 was not as bad for me as it was for you, until I put it down and played the 2000 right after it; just one note was all it took. What a warm, lovely sound. It is easy to play and made me want to play it more. It was the very best of the tubas I played, and the very best Meinl-Weston I have every played, at least from my perspective. It was light compared to my York, but produced many of the same sound qualities in addition to being a bit more responsive.
I didn't try the 6/4 horns--I've played other examples of those and didn't feel like I was moving air well enough to derive any useful perceptions.
Mark and I shared lunch and had a good conversation. I liked his attitude and his commitment to his customers. He's a genuine nice guy with a gentle approach if he is about eight feet tall. I would not put Mark in the category of filthy capitalist, and being in that category myself, I know the signs.
It's funny: When I lived in Dallas, my office was in the building immediately across the freeway from where the TubaStore is now located. I had looked at that Brook Mays branch for a while, and never gone in there, not realizing that they had a bunch of tuba sheet music there. Oh well, I tried to catch up Friday.
Rick "who wishes the TubaStore existed five years ago, but is glad it didn't" Denney