Posted by Rick Denney on December 20, 2002 at 23:33:28:
Based on severe arm-twisting (see further down), I left work at lunch today, picked up my wife, the York Master, a tuner, and a collection of mouthpieces, and headed to Ballmer (uh, that's spelled B-a-l-t-i-m-o-r-e) to visit Mr. Fedderly's establishment. I had called ahead, but I needn't have bothered--after Karla escaped down the street to find new strings for her banjo, Dave's tech, who was minding the store, and I had the place to ourselves.
I warmed up on the York Master to get a sense of the room with familiar equipment. Then I played one note on the Holton and decided I would buy it. As a negotiator, I basically suck. The smile on my face told the salesman that there would be no big discounting needed to complete THIS sale. The Holton is indeed a bit on the ugly side (pictures will be forthcoming), and it has a few problems. The bell has been wrinkled and rolled out. The bottom bow is the right shape, but shows quite a lot of small dents that have been rolled out through the guard (not the right way to do it!). There are still a collection of shallow dents around the offside bottom bow ferrule, which is where you expect them--the instrument does not stand reliably on its bell. The valve buttons are replacements that seem to be from a trumpet and I think playing the bare stems would not be much more challenging. The third-valve upper slide is stuck, and they all need work. The leadpipe has been removed and repaired, and signs of its replacement are visible. The lacquer is mostly intact, which makes all these faults especially visible. But it is solid where it needs to be--the valves are tight and fast, even if it was ten minutes before my pinky hit something besides air.
But who cares about any of that? It has the magic. There's no doubt about it. There was not a tuba in the room that came close to having that sound. The Neptune was not in the same town. The 4/4 rotary Hirsbrunner was not on the same planet. It is an all-encompassing sound, amazingly resonant; an omnipresent rumble, but with clarity and nimbleness much better than the York Master.
What about the intonation, you ask. With the instrument tuned on the second-partial low Bb, the main slide shows a tasteful inch. The dreaded third partial is right on the money. The fourth partial is flat about ten cents, just like my York Master (so it may be me), but the Holton has nice wide sweet spots and it is easy to point the pitch where you want to. The fifth partial is flat as it is on most tubas, and C and D are in tune using the fingerings from an octave down. The sixth partial which is sharp on my York Master, is perfect. The eighth partial high Bb is also right on the money. Higher than that I don't care, heh, heh. I could find no valve combinations that did unexpected things within that general outline.
The Holton is everything the Rusk/Yorks were that I have played (at least from my perspective). It is warm and inviting, pitches bend easily and speak very easily. This is the tuba that fits the "old man's tuba" description. It definitely makes me sound better than I am.
There was no possible way I was going to leave that store without that instrument, and I didn't. Heck, it even fits (barely) in the gig bag I've been using for the YM.
For Dan Oberloh: The marking on the receiver is "BB-345", and a previous owner has engraved "Coors 7.25" and "Zip 53066" under the "Holton" and "Elkhorn, Wis" label. Why do people deface instruments? Can't they engrave such information in an inconspicuous place? I have no knowledge of the provenance of the instrument, and I could find no serial number. The word "school" was used but that may have been speculation. The previous owner was selling it because "it was just sitting around and not getting played." The previous owner's name was not given. The zip code resolves to Otonomowoc, Wisconsin, wherever that is, heh, heh. If anyone knows anything about this one, I'd love to hear about it.
On to other instruments.
The Bohm and Meinl was quite interesting. It's much different than the York Master, though the major bits seemed to be the same. It has the typical slanted valve arrangement, but they are lower on the instrument by several inches. The bows aren't wrapped the same way--the third bow is on the other side of the outer branch from the YM. It has the typical fourth-valve tubing on the outer front rather than on the back of the body as on the York. And the one-piece bell has a faster taper up to a bigger throat, even though it is the same at the ferrule. The B&M is an inch or a little more shorter than the YM. In terms of sound, it had a very similar sound with lots of discipline and well-defined slots, as with the York Master, though the slots aren't quite as stiff as the YM. And there are no valves like B&M valves. But the instrument didn't seem as nice in terms of fit and finish--the YM has nickel slide sleeves but the B&M did not. As with the York, it makes a bigger sound down low than, say, the new King, at the expense of some agility in the upper register. The Holton is between the those instruments and the King in agility up high. I took some pictures, and will put them up somewhere soon.
Speaking of King, I played one of the new 2341's, and it was a dandy. It didn't have the stuffy fourth valve I've noticed on several of them, and it had a lively resonance lacking on some. The new batch is an improvement over last year's inaugural offering, it seems to me. It's definitely the tuba I would recommend to someone wanting a 4/4 BBb tuba in that price range, as long as they get a good one. I need a set of those valve buttons for the Holton.
But the King was not even in the same solar system as the Holton when it came to sound. The Holton moves earth, but with great gentleness. It's like giant who can dance ballet, while the King is like a cheerleader who can do backflips. I can well understand the mystique that has arisen about the good examples of the 345. The differences were not subtle--my wife's response from across the room was "Wow!". She could clearly tell the difference between it and the VMI Neptune, though it surprised her (she thought the shiny and costly like-new Neptune would be the better instrument).
The Conn 20j will go to ebay. I feel a little bad about this, because Daryl made it available to the group at a great price, but it's part of the deal with my wife.
Rick "typing this only because his chops are hopelessly blown" Denney