Re: Cerveny 693 BBb Tuba


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Posted by Mark in Ohio on February 24, 2001 at 12:38:14:

In Reply to: Cerveny 693 BBb Tuba posted by Joe on February 21, 2001 at 01:48:33:

When I was in the Army band in Tokyo, we ordered up a pair of these. Seemed like a good way to get two matching BATs for the price of one.

After the honeymoon was over ("ooh a shiny new Kaiser thingie in my lap that blows 'different' than the other horn I played!") we concluded them to be dogs. Big shiny Dogs.

Yes they're dark. In lots of contexts this means dull & character-less.

The biggest concern was intonation. Both horns we had were identical in this respect- If you tuned using the in-staff Bb, the low BBb was really flat. Enough to wear you out lipping it. Of course if ya tuned the low one, the in-staff was sharp!

It's a BBb horn, for gravy's sake!!

some 2-3 fingered notes (like Gb bottom line on staff) was waaaay flat w/slides all the way in... Where do you go with that?

Several players AND mouthpieces were tried with the same results on both of those Kaisers.

Also, after a month or so of use, a spooky orange goo came out when emptying the main slide water, and a couple big chunks of solder tumbled out one day.

Maybe some joker sent us the absolute dogs of the lot, because they were bought on government contract and couldn't be hand picked by us from the vendor on the other side of the world. Maybe the horns are really not that bad on the whole.

I would be darn sure to hand pick the one you get, and bring a friend with a tuner ("never tune with your eyes")

Just my experience with the Kaiser. Your mileage may vary- and I hope it does in this case!

--Mark "the rotors were real nice and quiet, though" Mazak



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