Posted by Jay Bertolet on November 22, 2002 at 23:04:04:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Huge Eb... posted by Rick Denney on November 22, 2002 at 12:44:02:
I think the Monster Eb is about the same through the bows and branches but the bell on the Monster has much more flare than the Willson. I think those Monster horns look much bigger than they actually are because of the wide bell flare. I know they sure do play smaller than the Willson, at least the ones I've tried. Those horns are scattered all over the midwest and I've tried many of them. They all had a stuffy low range, intonation quirks in abundance, and a pretty great sound overall. Also, the vast majority of those horns only have 3 valves. I believe that's why I haven't seen too many conversion projects involving these horns.
It might be kind of interesting, from a purely empirical standpoint, to see what would happen if you convert one of these Monster horns with a modern valve set. Still, I have to ask the question again. Why? To what end? The Willson is constantly belittled because of its overly large size. I personally think it is just about right but many others have stated that this horn is no longer a bass tuba, that it sounds more like a contrabass. Anything larger than the Willson design is only going to go further in the direction of a contrabass sound and at that point, you have to wonder why a player wouldn't just pick up a contrabass horn instead. I guess I could imagine it if you wanted to only work with one set of fingerings and they all should be in Eb. Other than that, I think it might be a bit of overkill. I think that's another reason you don't see too many of these conversions.
The idea is interesting but these days, I can't seem to get away from thinking about horns in terms of what I would use them for. I can't imagine a use for such a conversion that I couldn't cover with instruments I already have. I'll be interested to see how the ones come out that are already stated to be on the drawing board. Who knows?
My opinion for what it's worth...