Posted by Jay Bertolet on February 08, 1999 at 22:13:53:
In Reply to: Willsons ain't so bad after all posted by Sean Chisham on February 08, 1999 at 21:20:15:
What a coincidence! I had the same experience you just had about 2 years ago. I tried one of the prototypes of the Willsons when they first came out and I thought they were downright awful. Especially bad was the intonation, though many of the notes seemed uncenterable on the tuba I played. After I saw the proposed price tag I laughed! Then I tried a newer model, made just over 2 years ago. Someone told me that the horn had undergone some minor tweaking and it had panned out in a big way. So I tried the new one and it was like night and day. Suddenly, all the notes felt very solid and centered and there were very few intonation problems, all easily solved. I'm very much looking forward to using mine when we do Franck's D Minor Symphony in 2 weeks. With the easy upper range and massive low range, I think this tuba may be custom designed for the Franck.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who noticed the change...