Posted by Bonde on February 04, 2004 at 20:35:29:
In Reply to: Opinion on a horn please posted by jm on February 04, 2004 at 19:50:32:
Hi,
Most reliable horn for the buck in my opinion is the Mirafone 186. I had a 681 and it served me well. A 186 will be all the better. You can spend all you want obviously but more specialized horns can drive the price up dramatically, in an instance where it is just not necessary. My analogy is this: If you go to a stereo store you can buy a nice stereo that sounds awesome for X. At the same time you can spend 3X or 4X for another system that has .000000000 something less distortion etc... but do you Really need that? Maybe a recording engineer does but the average guy (like me) does not.
Back to tubas... some of the horns out there are that 3X -4X stereo, very nice but do you need or want that? $10,000 for a tuba is a bit much, unless you make your living playing the tuba...You can get a nice horn for $2000 to $4000 without much trouble.
CC or BBb? Tougher question. What are you most comfortable with? I played CC in college - I play BBb now. There is a certain "snobbery" about CC for orchestra - why I don't know. Lots of discussion on this topic as you know - personlly I think it started with people thinking more valves=better. I think my F is easier to play because of the fifth valve, but F tubas are just that way. If you want 5 valves get a CC - you get more valve combinations, although you need them to get certain notes and to play in tune on others. Most people will not be able to tell the difference between a four valve CC and a four valve BBb - its the 5th valve that most folks id a CC with. Face it, a 5th valve is cool- comes with a price though. I think most manufacturers market CC to "professional" tubists. If it is your living you will spend more on a horn therefore CC is more money - I don't know...
Anyway, good luck. No matter what you choose, enjoy playing, it is something you can do forever.
Bonde