Re: F Tubas


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Posted by Doug Whitten on February 15, 2004 at 10:04:35:

In Reply to: F Tubas posted by Just Wondering on February 15, 2004 at 01:28:12:

I played only F tuba for about a year. It was on a Yamaha YFB 822. It seemed logical to me at the time because that particular F tuba sounded so CC-like and had plenty of low range. Unfortunately, after about 6 months I began detesting the instrument. It played fine, but for my taste, the sound was too vanilla. I was not able to create my own voice on that instrument. Many players sound great on the 822, but for me it just wasn't fun to play after the "Honeymoon."

F tuba (or EEb for that matter) may be a good choice as your sole instrument if chamber ensembles are your mainstay. In theory, a large F should be fine for most local or regional orchestras, too. But in practice, I am not so sure. I had a lot more fun and felt more confident in my playing when I played CC (Mirafone 186) for everything.

I now have a mid-sized F tuba (MW 45S) and a 5/4 CC (PT-6)tuba and actually play them about the same amount of time. For what I do, this is ideal. If I were to go back to playing only one tuba, it would definitely be a CC.


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