Posted by Matt G on January 09, 2003 at 15:58:08:
In Reply to: Rotary "Old Man's Tuba"? posted by Marty Neilan on January 09, 2003 at 15:24:16:
One thing I can think of that comes close is the old Bill Bell Model CC's. Dillon's has a nice example right now of one and it really is an easy tuba to play. It isn't going to sound huge, but it sounds great! I haven't tried any of the newer MW-37's but they might yield the same results. One other that is the same idea is the VMI Neptune Rotary. Plays very easily and in tune and large with not a lot of work. The bore is the same as a Miraphone, but a lot of big pipe after it.
Notice on both that they have a small bore when compared to other models of the same relative size. The one thing that is really nice about the Bill Bell models are their agility. Being that they are made for a very agile player, it only makes sense.
For some reason, on rotary horns, we associate a bigger bore with a better horn. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that a lot of people associated playing the tuba with muscling it around. New thinking is contrary to that and renders the big bore on those old style Kaiser horns a little difficult to deal with.
Maybe someone could talk Cerveny into grafting one of their medium size bore sets onto a 601 frame and see what the results would yield. I, personally, would be interested in the results.
Matt G