Re: PLEASE ADVISE - NEED A TUBA


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Posted by Rick Denney on March 20, 2003 at 14:42:01:

In Reply to: PLEASE ADVISE - NEED A TUBA posted by dogger on March 20, 2003 at 12:11:06:

If $3000 is your limit, then sticking with Bb will give you more choices that switching to C. For example, you can get an excellent used Miraphone, a new VMI 2103, and for only a bit more you could get a new King 2341 or that good-playing used Boehm and Meinl at Baltimore Brass.

As to piston or rotary, there is no resolution to this age-old debate. Try them all, and buy the tuba that you just love to play. Take the valves it comes with.

If you want to make the switch to C, then you'll have to learn new fingerings. Rather than the whole-step transposing that Barry suggested, you might find it easier just to start over with your beginner method books and learn the C as a new instrument. Write fingerings down on photocopies of music you know, and play. After a while, go back to the originals, and play more. Learn your scales, but read them rather than playing them from memory, so that you associate the new fingerings with the old notes. If you are used to running through them chromatically, then play them in the circle-of-fifths sequence to keep you from lapsing into finger-pattern habits and not really learning new fingerings. Ken Sloan wrote an excellent post that is still visible below on how people like us learn new fingerings when we have become expert in old fingerings. To summarize his point: drill, drill, drill.

You might have a hard time finding a good C tuba for $3000, unless a good Cerveny happens to come your way (there are not-so-good Cervenys, too). You'll have to be extremely lucky to find one with a fifth valve for that price, and without the fifth valve, those low F's and E's that you see frequently in band parts are not so easy, unless the tuba has really good false tones. You can indeed play a four-valve C in the applications you describe, but it will be more work.

You may also find that you have to work a bit harder to maintain good intonation with your sections mates, depending on how good they are and how good you are. I've played in all the venues you describe, but I do have a problem with this myself, so please don't take this warning as an insult.

As to silver or lacquer, you'll probably have to take what's available when you shop. Acoustically, there is no practical difference with tubas, unless perhaps you are world class and looking for something 99.9% of the rest of us can't even hear.

I use a 3/4 F tuba for quintet, but that particular instrument is unusually strong in the low register, which is important for quintet literature. If you have reasonable chops, a good 4/4 BBb tuba should not pose any significant limitations. I own a number of instruments ranging from a 3/4 F tuba to a 6/4 BBb tuba, but if I could only keep one of them, it would probably be my 4/4 BBb Miraphone 186. It's the most versatile of the lot, even though it isn't as good for specific things as my other tubas. I don't play it much, but I'm keeping it.

What can you get for $3000? Baltimore Brass is showing two Miraphone 186's for about $2200, which leaves you some money to have the uglier dents ironed out. They have a Boehm and Meinl (now Nirschl) for $3450 that is one of the better BBb tubas you'll find anywhere near your price point, in my opinion. You can get a new King 2341 for about that price, too. He has a silver Jupiter 582 for a little less than your price point, if you really want silver. He also has several Conn International (made by VMI) 2100's, which are four-valve rotary tubas, that I'd bet are within your price range. Lots to choose from on that list; they all meet your stated requirements and you can't really go wrong with any of them.

Rick "who thinks $4500-5000 is a better working budget for a 5-valve CC tuba" Denney



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