Posted by js on May 29, 2003 at 09:43:00:
I'm trying to help out a kid with a B&S 4P + rotor CC tuba.
He bought it used. The tuba built extremely sharp. When the student plays it, the lowest it can effectively be played in tune (with the main tuning slide ready to fall off) is A=444. When I play it - same exact results.
When he began to play for me at the beginning of his first lesson with me, the instrument (though in tune with itself) sounded very strange to my ears, so I checked the pitch very carefully.
The person that sold it to the student sent me a note with stuff like "Arnold Jacobs used to say" and "slow down the air stream". Of course, I can sag/lip the pitch on this instrument down to 50 cents flat - if I want to sound like that, but the instrument "lives" above A=444.
Has anyone else had the same experience with these 4/4 piston instruments? (It appears to be about the same size as a MW-2145.)
Joe "who's getting ready to put one of those turn-of-the-century-style Holton EEb tuba main tuning slide crook curly-cues in this instrument*, so that it can be played with other people" S.
______________________
*Yep, if I simply lengthen the main slide straight out, it will hit on the player in playing position, and as far as lengthening the mouthpipe - it is already "high" on the instrument.
Curiously, I played a MW45S-LP F tuba (great tuba - in tune with itself, etc.) the other day that played just as sharp. IS THERE A BRASS SHORTAGE out there??