Re: Re: F tuba


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Posted by Rick Denney on January 19, 2001 at 10:17:32:

In Reply to: Re: F tuba posted by Joseph on January 18, 2001 at 23:46:05:

Many years ago, I owned a "Musica" F tuba with four valves. I suspect it was pretty similar to the "Graslitz" F tuba that Baltimore Brass is listing. I looked similar in detail to a Cerveny, which is similar to all the Czech horns. It had clock-spring valve returns, cheapie ball-joint linkages that I replaced, and those formed spatulas that are characteristic of the Czech horns of 15+ years ago (and all horns 40+ years ago). It was not an old horn--I suspect it was made in the '80's.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. The bore was no smaller than my 621, but the horn sounded smaller. It had about a 14" bell and four acceptable rotary valves. It had the typical small German F tuba sound below the staff, which is to say really oinky compared to the Yamaha.

Because of the sound of the lower register, and because of the lack of a fifth valve, it could only be used on literature that didn't extend much below the bass clef. But in its proper register it sounded pretty nice. It would have been fine for things like the Bydlo (with a better player than me), but it was not a general-purpose tuba. I can take the 621 to a lot of gigs, including brass quintet and tuba quartet, that would not have been playable on this four-valve F.

I paid $1000 for this horn at a surplus store (!) in about 1989. I wanted it to learn F tuba on an instrument that wasn't too expensive in case I couldn't pick it up, and it worked for that. But I replaced it with something more expensive and versatile (a Yamaha 621) at the earliest opportunity.

To get a deal like that, you have to wait for it to come along, and scour the likely sources and a few unlikely ones. It may take you years to find the opportunity.

Too bad Weril hasn't extended their product line to include a copy of the Yamaha 621F as well as the CC and BBb.

Rick "I have this Missenharter, see..." Denney


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