Posted by DS on January 08, 2003 at 13:13:28:
Before I go any further I want to say I owe a debt of gratitude to all of you that responded to my earlier post and advised me to play the Holton first before doing anything. That was the best advice you could have given me, and I'm glad I followed it.
After making shipping arrangements with LaVar Wherry at Taylor Music (a very nice fellow!)I received my Holton late Friday, January 3, without any mishaps. After all the smoke settled I now have a total investment of $3680 into the horn. While off-loading it from the truck my very first impression was - it's HEAVY! A lot of that was the original woodshell case it came in. My normal practice takes place at the church I attend (60 - 75 minutes worth over lunch hour, 5 days a week) so I took it to church to unpack it from it's shipping case. To put my "sound" impressions in context, the church seats about 750 and the sanctuary does have fabulous acoustics (some money well spent during design phase). In the last 27 years I have played five different tubas in this sanctuary; a Besson 2-20, a Yamaha YBB-641, a St. Pete, a Mirafone 186, and a Cerveny 701 (six now, I guess).
At this point my narrative could almost have been a cut and paste of Rick's earlier post (Ho Ho Holton!). Much like Rick's trip to Baltimore, I warmed up with familiar equipment to put things into perspective. Most of my playing has been on the 186 (my personal instrument for 15 years) and since last summer I have practiced a LOT on the 701, as I have found it to be very beneficial to practice on a large horn. I was really surprised to see how similar some of our first impressions were.
If there was a way for Tony, Rick, and I to put our horns side-by-side, mine would surely be the ugly duckling. The bell has been wrinkled and rolled out. On the other hand, only one of the three bell cracks described by LaVar is readily visible, in fact, two were so small I didn't find them until I went over the bell with a very fine-tooth comb. I have yet to discover that they cause any noise ((buzzing). The bottom bow shows quite a few small dents that have been rolled out, apparently with the guard off, as it has been replaced. There is very little evidence of denting around the offside bottom bow ferrule, and interestingly enough, this horn does seem willing to stand on its bell. As Rick stated, the valve buttons look like replacements from a trumpet, but this horns valve set seems to place the stems in a nice arc. The thumb ring is oval and may have been modified to suit a previous owner. My hands are only a little bigger than average but I found the playing position to be quite comfortable. As you can see from the above list this is the first front piston tuba I have owned, and I was wondering about the ergonomics. The valve cap opening on the second valve is slightly oval, possibly worn from a bent stem(?). I noticed 2nd and 3rd valve cap openings on Tony's horn also look larger than 1 and 4. All slides move easily except the third-valve upper slide which is a bit tight. Fourth valve upper slide is smooth and easy to pull, but when pulled right out it springs to slightly smaller spacing between tubes. The leadpipe has been replaced and signs of replacement are visible. The lacquer has a LOT of scratching, some of it in weird places. Only the first valve makes an annoying little clank when playing fast passages. Upon closer inspection it appears the sides of the first valve guide have been filed a bit (it does not look like wear). This allows the valve to rotate very slightly and I suspect that's the root of the noise. I'll be doing something to alleviate that. The valves are tight and fast as LaVar described, obviously having been recently reworked as they show no wear at all. As the auction description showed, there are 4 patches on the body and 3 on the tuning slides.
OK, time to play! Part of my nervous anticipation circled around the fact that I had to purchase this horn without first test-playing it. Dale's offer of purchasing it if I had buyer's remorse didn't help. After I played one note on the Holton my fears were laid to rest; in fact I nearly pooped my bloomers I was so excited! IT HAS THE MAGIC, no doubt about it. There is something about that sound that's hard to put into words, it must be experienced (how can you explain to somebody that honey tastes sweet?). I was instantly transported back in time (OK figuratively speaking!) to last year when I played alongside Brock Campbell and his NirschlYork in the university brass choir. It's the only tuba that comes close in comparing it's sound. I quote Rick - "It is an all-encompassing sound, amazingly resonant; an omnipresent rumble, but with clarity and nimbleness". The nimbleness is something I could not believe. Having spent quite a bit of time playing the Cerveny 701 lately (it's BIG - 20" bell, .827" bore, 44" tall), it blew me away how much easier it was to play the Holton. Don't get me wrong, the 701 can sound pretty awesome, but it requires tremendous focus and it is a LOT of work. BTW, in the roughly 6 hours of playing I did so far I tried three mouthpieces; a Conn 1 (BIG!), a C6 and a C4. I kept coming back to the C4; it's not a special mouthpiece or anything, but it sure seems to work for me in this horn.
What about intonation? Tuned with the main slide out almost an inch, 2nd slide out 1/2" and 4th slide out 1 1/4" the 3 Bb's from below to above staff are within a nickel of each other. Playing in the 98% part of the range chromatically from the pedal F up to that Bb above the staff everything is within 10 cents (!) except the two F's and F#'s just below and in staff; they are about 25 cents flat :-(. BUT, the saving grace as Rick pointed out, is that the Holton makes it easy to point the pitch where you want to and it does speak very easily. Another thing I love is that you can ever so gently bump notes and they will just pop out, something I had a lot of difficulty with on the Cerveny 701, especially in quiet low register passages. I think I now understand the "old man's tuba" description.
I recall one thing Tony raved about was the Holtons power in a big hall. I am anxious to try that. First wind symphony rehearsal is this Thursday (we rehearse in a high school music room) and the first brass choir rehearsal is next week Friday (in the sanctuary I practice in). Our next wind symphony concert is February 27th. These are always in an old, wide open hall with wood floors and the old wooden folding chairs. The next concert will feature a nice range; Morton's Symphony for Band, Shostakovich's (?) Country Dances, Slava, Elsa's Procession (that will be fun!), Holst Military Suite, and others. Our conductor likes to feature smaller sections of the ensemble at concerts so there are also two Gabrielli pieces for brass choir and I will be doing my best to imitate a bassoon in an RvW piece for wind ensemble (requiring 3 bassoons, but we only have 2) but I don't remember what it's called. Should be a good test, and I will report my further impressions.
OK, where does all this leave me? For the moment I don't plan to do anything other than repair the bell cracks and remove the lyre holder thing (annoying) as I am very pleased with the way the horn plays right now. Thanks again for all your advice, people! I will eventually deal with the cosmetics and do something along the line of what Tony did to his. Did I get a good deal? With ~$3700 invested I feel I got a good deal, in fact, if I had had a chance to play-test I would have paid as much as $5000 for this horn. FWIW, I later found out that the folks at Taylor Music were hoping the auction would bring them $1500 for this instrument!
To Daniel Oberloh: the serial number for this horn is 442395. Is there anything else you wanted for your survey/records?
Just two more questions; why are there two slides for some of the valves? Also, does anybody have a gig-bag for sale or know of one that will fit this thing (before I go to Altieri)? My tuba career could be over soon if I have to haul it in it's wooden case...
Dietmar