TMEA Tuba Thoughts


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Posted by Steve W on February 25, 2002 at 20:05:00:

What a great conference, again. If you get the chance, you have to come down to San Antonio for TMEA or TBA conventions.

Now about the tubas there. The vendors that had more that one tuba were Custom Music, Brook Mays, Miraphone, Tuba Exchange, DEG, UMI, and Jupiter. I spent most of the convention trying tubas and a couple of euphoniums at the request of some of my community band members. Instead of listing each horn I tried, I'll just give some highlights in categories.

Here's the nominations for TMEA Tubas IMHO FWIW:

Best expensive CC tubas- Nirschl 6/4 York Floyd-a-phone, HB21

Best CC tubas the rest of us can afford- PT20P, PT6P, PT3P, Miraphone 188, Miraphone S186, Willson 3050

Brand Missing in Action at TMEA- Meinl Weston (there were none, not even a 25)

Best Eb tuba- Willson (the Besson 983 at TE wasn't the best I've played)

Need to move their booth out of the entrance to the exhibits- Custom (I could here myself play a few times)

Best F Tubas- Gronitz PF125, Yamaha 621S, Yamaha 822S, Miraphone 181-6V gold brass, Willson 3200

Biggest Surprise- Cerveny CFB653 F tuba (what a nice little horn for the price, good low D-C-Bb)

CC tuba that claims to be an F- Yamaha 822 F. I liked how it played a lot but it's for someone who plays an F as their only tuba or you have the Nirschl 6/4 as your small CC.

How do these rumors get started #1- I asked a UMI rep about the King 6/4 BBb that was mentioned in an earlier posting. He told me that there is no plans to make a 6/4 horn of any key, not a big enough market.

How do these rumors get started #2- The same UMI rep did say that there WILL be a Conn 4P+1R F tuba. It's in testing now, no release dates mentioned.

How do these rumors get started #3- Mark Atkinson of Atkinson Brass, noted French Horn maker, says he's ready to produce a 3 piece tuba mouthpiece, a la Doug Elliott. Cost of each piece was not mentioned. The only date I could get out of him was "soon". He already makes a two piece horn mouthpiece.

Best 4 Valve BBb for Middle School use- Weril 680, VMI 2301, King 2341, Jupiter 582L

Best 4 Valve BBb for High School use- VMI 2301, King 2341, VMI 3301/02, VMI 101, Miraphone S191

Best BBb tuba for the Price- VMI 2301

Best BBb for those with small hands- King 2341

Best BBb for a school or person with no $$- Weril 980 (It played great and much better than a Yamaha 321)

Best place to eat on a budget- The Malt House. How does a $1.35 for a cheeseburger and fries sound (yes, it was good and came from a cow and potatoes). Unfortunatly, it's not within walking distance from the convention center.

Best Euphonium I tried- Miraphone, silver and lacquer (disclaimer- I am a tuba player and only tried a couple of euphoniums)

Best Euphonium for a school or person with no $$- Weril 980

Other thoughts- The new Miraphone 1291 was a great played and Charlie gave a pretty accurate review. I gave the BBb's mentioned in the HS category a slight edge over the 1291. The 1295 CC was better that I thought it would be. Last summer when I was looking to buy a CC, I would have been happy with it. I was also dissapointed that there were no Meinl Westons to try, maybe at TBA someone will have some. If I had won the lottery and could buy a tuba tomorrow it would be the Gronitz F. Just a final note, Marty Erickson has to be the most personable, big name player I've ever talked to. What a great person!

See you at TBA in July!!


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