Posted by Chuck(G) on September 30, 2001 at 11:42:55:
Why is it that when it comes to good intonation, there are so many CCs that fall short of the mark as compared to BBbs? I'm not talking about BBb horns cut to CC; in my own experience, many of these have better intonation than most "factory" CC tubas.
Low first line G's, F's and Bb's that seem to be at opposite ends of the 1st slide and other notes that require headscratching to get the old needle to center seem to be far more common on CCs than the corresponding notes on a BBb.
That big Marzan I just got is really a piece of work; I'm having to work out my own fingering chart for it; I can still play C's open, thank heavens. I'm almost ready to throw in the towel and trade it for a decent BBb. When I picked it up, I knew that Marzans were a bit quirky, but nothing like this. The sound is very nice indeed, but there are other horns out there with equally nice tones.
Can anything be done about this? The valves are fine and there are no significant dents--in all respects, this is a horn in very good factory-original condition. Maybe it belongs in a collection and not in someone's lap. But I'm not opposed to performing major surgery on it, if anyone has some worthwhile ideas.
Cheers,
Chuck
"Spinoza said that we view reality through the lens of philosophy. But then Spinoza was a lens maker. We should be glad that he was not a proctologist." --Severn Darden