Posted by Steve Inman on October 18, 2003 at 12:10:42:
In Reply to: Eb Tubas posted by TexAss on October 17, 2003 at 17:56:28:
From a former Besson 983 owner, and someone who has played the Willson for an extended trial, along with the typical short trips to Brasswind:
The compensating Eb horns all have an increased amount of air resistance below the low BBb note. Some folks can cope with this and some folks report being frustrated by this characteristic (I am in the latter camp). In the low register, you cannot increase the volume level of the compensating instruments by "blowing harder", due to the resistance issue -- you must learn alternate approach(es) to accomplish this. The Willson 5V (4P, 1R) horn is not a compensator and does not have this characteristic.
The Besson 983 has a very nice sound -- not too big, not too small, but brighter/lighter in the upper register. It is a reasonable quintet horn if you can tolerate the extra resistance in the lower register. A PT-72 mpc helped significantly for me in this regard.
I recently played the Yamaha compensating Eb (631 or 632 -- not sure which) and wasn't too impressed. It did have a bigger, weighter sound than a 983, but it still had the low range air resistance issue. It didn't seem to me to be as "flexible" as the 983, in that you may have too heavy of a sound for some applications where the 983 would still work.
The 981/2 horns are well respected by those who own them. Their larger bells (19") provide a nice, broad sound, allowing them to "keep up" with a bigger ensemble when needed.
I absolutely loved the Willson Eb, and if I had the money, I would consider it to be an excellent all-around tuba from quintet up to medium sized ensembles. A heavier sound than the Besson 983, and much freer blowing down into the pedal register. As posted here a while back, the Willson bore that is published does not seem to be the measurements if the INSIDE DIAMETER of the valve slides. IIRC, the actual bore of the Willson is only a slight bit bigger than the Besson horns, which are .689-ish. I believe the Willson bore started around .700 and went up from there (graduated), but following the "everybody else except Willson measurement standard" of measuring the inside diameter, the Willson is comparable with all of the others.
I also used to own the Yamaha YEB-381, which is the 5V version of the YEB-321. This horn has a rotary valve located WITHIN the 4th valve tubing, allowing an additional 1/2 step (tunable) lowering of any 4th valve combination note. Essentially this is like a fixed pitch trigger. It worked well, but the horn didn't slot as securely for me above middle C, requiring a bit more care when playing in the far upper register. Even thought the horn's bell (a bit over 15") seems similar to the YFB-621 dimension, the Yamaha Eb has a significantly larger sound overall and is a decent horn. If you aren't planning to play a lot below low BBb, the 4V version (YEB-321) would be very adequate.
The MW2141 horn that I played YEARS ago at Brasswind had some obvious intonation problems. This BBS has seen multiple postings that MW has corrected this a few years back. (see an earlier post in this thread for confirmation) If so, then the MW2141 is the only other NON-COMPENSATING Eb choice readily available, and would be well worth a look.
HTH,
Steve Inman
Eb-only player for several years
Kokomo, IN