Posted by Rick Denney on January 15, 2001 at 17:25:42:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: It occurs to me posted by Joe S. on January 13, 2001 at 00:33:39:
There's no doubt that my York Master was made by Boehm and Meinl. And when I asked Walter Nirschl myself about this horn, he said he was far too young to have done the work on this horn, but he followed that up by inviting me to enjoy my "wonderful" tuba. He seemed to be laughing when he wrote it (we conversed by email).
I don't have any Hirsbrunner valves to drop into it, but the tubing is exactly .750", not the metric-equivalent .748". This suggests to me that though it was made in Geretsried, it was made to U.S. specifications, and perhaps with U.S. tooling (now there's a myth the truth of which will never be known). I have no doubt that the mandrels for THE York were scrapped as widely reported, at least second-hand. But nobody seems to care about knowing the fate of mandrels and tooling for 4/4 instruments, and I've been unable to learn anything. Nirschl himself isn't saying one way or the other, which I find amusing but uninformative. Is he hoping that people will get the impression that he does have the mandrels when he doesn't, or is he keeping clear of B&H's proprietary rights, or is he amused by all the speculation and therefore unwilling to put it to rest? Clearly, the York Master has a different bell shape concept than the typical German tuba of any era, and it more closely matches historical American instruments. How closely is a matter of interest to me, which is why I'm trying (so far with slow progress) to amass a collection of accurate photos of York Grand Rapids 4/4 instruments for comparison.
Yes, my tuba has the same playing characteristics you describe. With the right mouthpiece (and the horn is sensitive here), it has good intonation up through about F or G on the staff, at which time it goes sharp. But I have not tried all possible mouthpieces. For this reason, the horn will accompany me to the Army tuba conference in two weeks. This horn has a sweet, blossomy sound that makes me want to play it, and it slurs as well as my little F tuba. The fourth valve is magic, with a sweeter low F than I've ever experienced on any horn.
I've never played a true Grand Rapids York, and I'm not sure my ears are sufficiently well-tuned to notice all the subtleties of those instruments. But I've played my share of other old American-made tubas, and I also own a Miraphone. I've even played an Alexander BBb on several occasions, and a Rudy Meinl 5/4 BBb, and this York is German only in its place of manufacture. I can well understand that Nirschl's current York copies are good--his workers have been working with this concept for decades.
The only horn I've ever played that gave me the same vibes was an early Yorkbrunner that made a big impression on me when I tooted it at the 1986 ITEC. So, I've only played York-branded or York-copy European tubas, but they all seem to have unique characteristics derived from the original.
Rick "whatever those are" Denney