Posted by Rob P-M on May 03, 2002 at 08:03:33:
In Reply to: Re: Questions about 6/4's and cuts posted by Adam Sandler on May 03, 2002 at 01:11:33:
While it's been true for the past 40 years or so that CC tubas are generally higher quality horns than BBb, historically that is simply not true. In Germany, the professional contrabass of choice has always been BBb, so the old Kruspe, Sander, Alexander, etc. horns in BBb will be every bit as good as the CCs, and perhaps even better, since more time and effort went into their design. Likewise in the US, BBb horns were the professional choice for contrabass tubas at least through the mid-30s. CC horns were around, but the exception. The design work was all done on BBb contrabass tubas, the CC's were almost all custom horns working from BBb models rather than new designs from the ground up. In the catalogs (Conn, King, York) you see the horns shown in BBb, with CC listed as an option in the 20's and 30's.
The fact is that most really good BBb tubas will not be improved by cutting them. I admire those like Matt Walters who can take a decent BBb and make it a great CC, but overall I would be even he would be reluctant to cut a really fine BBb.