Posted by Ken Sturgeon on June 03, 2000 at 06:04:30:
In Reply to: Re: Willson 3050 vs. B&S PT6 posted by Austin on June 03, 2000 at 01:22:49:
Dave Kirk is principle tubist with the Houston Symphony.
I had a Willson 3050 on trial from the Brasswind a couple years ago. I did a quintet gig with it and the size of the sound was not a problem. Executing quick passages CLEARLY was a bit difficult. This could possibly be solved by using a different mouthpiece though. I should note that the particular 3050 I tried had some problems. This was the second of two I tried from Brasswind. Both of them were very stuffy and the tone had little core and seemed shallow for the size of the instrument. I tried flushing one of them out with water too see if there was anything stuck in it like packing peanuts, dust, etc. It didn't help and I sent them back. In defense of the 3050, I tried one in San Antonio at a convention. The Tuba Exchange booth had one and it played beautifully. Michael Thornton, principal tubist with the Cincinnati Symphony, recently started using the 3050 when their concert hall was renovated and the acousticle environment changed. He had been using an Alex CC for the past 25 years. 3050's are good horns, as are the PT-6's. If you can, I would try out both of these horns in as many ensemble situations as possible. And watch out for the lemons. Best of luck!