Posted by js on June 03, 2002 at 08:19:43:
In Reply to: Re: Holton 6/4 at ITEC posted by Brian Frederiksen on June 03, 2002 at 07:51:55:
I've only played the CSO York once, but one thing that I do remember is that the CSO York is so lightweight that it almost "floated" when I picked it up.
Perhaps, this is due to multiple aggressive overhauls (??). I do recall an old picture of the young Mr. Jacobs posing with the instrument with a satin silver finish, and obviously now the instrument has a bright silver finish. It takes a LOT of buffing to completely obliterate a satin silver finish.
During the last ten years, the vogue has been "heavy" instruments. Nothing is any good unless it is "heavywall", etc. I'm not sure how important wall thickness is, compared to good geometry (and I'm not sure that anyone has ever uncovered the magical geometry to make a 6/4 tuba both respond well in all registers and play fairly well in tune).
Perhaps originally the CSO York was "medium" thickness. From my experience, it is now definitely "thinwall". Yamaha's copy as a (as your report) "lightweight" instrument may not be authentic, but perhaps the only way to make a more authentic copy would be to build a "normal" thickness instrument and buff the cr*p out of it a few times.