Posted by Doug Whitten on November 09, 2003 at 19:28:23:
In Reply to: If you only had $6500 or so to spend... posted by Scott Norberg on November 09, 2003 at 12:59:36:
I tried the large F (Yamaha 822) for everything for a while. It worked ok. As time went on I really began to miss the Contrabass sound. I Then I went on the "Tour de horns" trying a smallish CC (Mirafone 186), to a Conn 3J,to a PT3, to a newer 186 settling in on the 186 for a few years. For having only 1 horn, and playing occasionally in regional orchestras and a lot of quintets and other "pick-up" groups this was a great instrument.
When I went back to college to get my doctorate I bought a small f (MW 182) to use for all the solo literature. For full orchestra and bands, I felt that I was getting too much "edge" on the 186, so I went shopping for a bigger horn and wound up with a beat up old B&S PT6 which I fell in love with. Then the parity between the Big CC and the MW 182 became obvious and I have now bought a bigger F (Meinl Weston 45S) and the world seems right.
The modern conventional equipment choice for professional tubists is a fairly big contrabass paired with a bass tuba. This makes complete sense to me. Unfortunately, I bought and sold a lot of instruments to arrive at a very conventional conclusion.
I use the PT6 in quintet and do not feel like I am overpowing. The other quintet members say that they like its "meatiness" over the F tuba. I would estimate I perform 3/5 on CC and 2/5 on F. Practice is about 50/50 because I always warm up on the big horn and work on solo literature on the F tuba.
To directly answer your $6500 question, I would buy both a CC and an F used. I am sure it could be done if you are patient and know what you are looking for.