Why cut a BBb to a CC?


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Posted by AW on July 28, 2002 at 21:19:32:

My question is not about whether BBb or CC is the best kind of tuba. I was wondering why someone would want to take a good BBb tuba and cut it down to a CC. I realize that the majority of serious players use a CC for their contrabass. Indeed, even though I was used to a BBb, when I got back into tuba playing after a long hiatus, I bought a CC horn simply because I liked it better than the BBb ones I tried.

Although tuba makers these days seem to put their finest efforts into building CC horns rather than BBb horns, how does this apply to an already built older BBb horn? Does cutting a BBb down to CC make a horn better in some way? Or, is it that a CC player doesn't want to deal with another set of fingerings? For myself, learning CC fingerings wasn't as much effort as learning the quirks of another tuba (and learning to use the fifth valve).

I was thinking that if I wanted to supplement my nice 4/4 size CC horn with a bigger one, I would get something like one of the huge Conn 2xJ BBb tubas. The different fingerings don't bother me. Is there some disadvantage in doing this?



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