Posted by Rick Denney on August 09, 2001 at 11:29:25:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Best Professional BBb Tuba posted by Jack Swinson on August 09, 2001 at 06:27:22:
I have played all of them except the Miraphone 191. The reports I see concerning that instrument seem so glowing that I therefore don't think I can say what I think is best. But I'll give you my impressions from the perspective of a second-rate amateur.
I have played the Willson on several occasions, and it is the only new BBb tuba that I've played that I liked on a par with my York Master. I've played a few vintage customized tubas that were better than both, but at least for the one I'm thinking of, I'm in line ahead of you, and the current owner, though old, isn't quite near to kicking off yet and he says with some justification that he will have to be in the ground before that instrument leaves him. So, we'll just have to wait.
I've also played a few CC tubas that I liked better than the best BBb tubas I've played. One was a one-off creation of Matt Walters, and the other was a one-off creation of Bob Rusk. Interestingly, parts of both started life in BBb tubas.
The Hirsbrunner BBb that I played sounded tubby to my Miraphone-trained ears, and so did the Meinl Weston 25. The VMI 3301 that I tried was a good tuba, but it seemed smaller than even the York Master (which is really a 4/4 tuba). I tried an Alex 163, and it was like pointing a howitzer cannon--it had about the most focused sound I've ever heard coming from my lips. I liked the big Cerveny 601 (actually, it was a red-brass 701 that I played), but I don't think I gave it a good test and with the mouthpiece I was using seemed not terribly responsive. Others vehemently disagree with my impressions of that instrument, so listen to them. The Willson is a big horn, with some but not all of that easy sound that I associate with the vintage American earth-movers.
But two instruments I've never played are the Miraphone 191, which I hear is incredibly free-blowing (maybe a good thing for you--possibly not for me), and the big Gronitz, of which I have only seen pictures. The Gronitz is the only current BBb tuba that seems to me the sort of tuba that could be compared to the York-style 6/4 CC tubas, but that is based solely on how they look, not how they sound or play.
One of these days, my Lotto tickets will hit, and I'll get one of those Gronitz's, or perhaps I'll find an old York before it is cut and have modern valves put on it. Until then, though, I'm happy with my York Master.
By the way, updating an old York seems to be what James Jenkins did in the Jacksonville Symphony. He is a long-standing and out-standing BBb orchestral tubist. Most of the other BBb orchestra pros seem to be in the Alexander camp, as they seem to be in Europe.
Rick "whose YM is not for sale" Denney