Re: tuba buying vs. burning money


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Posted by Bryan on July 13, 2000 at 21:52:45:

In Reply to: tuba buying vs. burning money posted by Joey Silva on July 13, 2000 at 17:49:42:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and bet that this thread gets at least 30 follow-up postings due to the subjectivity involved. Probably at least three from Rick "I obviously hate the middle name my mother gave me and therefore I have to insert some long phrase in here to spite her" Denney (just kidding)

I will keep my post centered around your question #2. I believe I have some relevant insight since I was just recently at the Hirsbrunner factory and learned a lot about tuba making from Peter himself. First of all, all HB's are hand-assembled as stated by another poster. The real difference you are alluding to is,"Are the bows and branches hand-made or machine made?" He admitted that they no longer make their own valve sets or bells.

Take for instance the HB-50 aka "Yorkbrunner." When you go to Custom Music and drop your pants, you have a choice of the regular model or the "handmade" one. What's the difference? Well first of all, $17K vs. about $22K. What do you get for the extra $5K? You get the same bell and valves (because they are purchased from somebody else) - the main difference is that you get the bows and branches hand made from brass "sheet metal" rather than made by blowing water at high-pressure into pre-made brass tubes. The difference in time (and obviously cost) here is tremendous. To form, braise, hand-hammer, and shape a bottom bow assembly can take a skilled craftsman (and how many of these guys are there in the world?) two weeks whereas dropping a pipe in a mold, squeezing the hydraulic press together and watching it work while smoking a cigarette takes only a couple of minutes.

What's the difference? Well I don't really know. I have no personal experience with handmade vs. machine made horns, but I do know that many professionals can tell the difference and are happy to shell out the extra bucks. I have heard that the response is better overall, the intonation can be better, and each horn has a more individual rather than generic sound. In the end, only you can decide if the additional money is actually worth it. (Too bad you probably will never be able to try them each side by side - you'll have to shell out $39 grand and send one of 'em back!)

As to why do they make so many models of CC? HB has actually scaled back quite a bit. They make more HB-21's than any other model right now. HB-2's and 2P's and HB-6's (5/4 rotary) are only built-to-order at the moment. (I never got the impression that the HB-20 ever really took off.) Every HB afficianado has their own personal favorite...I think the consensus is that the HB2P is probably the best 4/4 they ever built and the Yorkbrunner is the best overall.

Hope this helped.

Bryan


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