Posted by Adam Crowe on September 27, 2003 at 11:51:00:
In Reply to: What's a good F tuba? posted by Jerry on September 26, 2003 at 14:55:35:
"I'm looking to purchase an F tuba for solo, tuba ensemble, and brass quintet performance, and I was wondering what's out there as far as good intonation, response, and evenness in all registers are concerned."
When talking about F tubas, good intonation and evenness in all register are very subjective things, heh. It sounds like you want an all-around small horn, and for that I'd recommend the Meinl Weston 45SLP. Intonation is above average for an F tuba and it does have a nice evenness from top to bottom. It's a large F tuba, but still manages to not sound like a CC. I can't say the same for the large Yamaha F, it looks and sounds like a CC in my opinion.
I haven't played any Hirsbrunner or Willson F's long enough to know them, but they're in your price range I think. Couldn't hurt to find a couple and give them a blow also.
Have fun searching,
Adam