ive been reading for a long time and........

[XtremeEuph]

If my wife would let me have 10+ tubas, she could have all the shoes she wanted.

Dont even go there, if you open my moms closet, it feels like you've just been kicked in the face!

[chipster55]

I play what I can afford, but is a new tuba going to make me a better tuba player any more than new golf clubs going to make me a better golfer? If that were the case, I'd have a closet full of green jackets!

[iiipopes]

No, new golf clubs may not make you a Masters winner, but just like getting the proper sized suit so it's not tight in the shoulders or with sleeves that drop below your fingers, getting some help to figure out your own physiology in relation to what you play can help narrow the choices so you don't get the wrong tuba. For example, in golf, I shoot basically bogey golf. So I'm not able to take advantage of the playability of old-fashioned blade irons, but oversized heads with pure perimeter weighting and a thick sole will not let me golf to my best score. So I have a hybrid type iron, with a shaft that is just a little bit stiffer than regular, because of my strong wrists, but has a little more torque because of my old elbow injury.

Likewise, I probably won't buy a BAT, because I just can't fill it. But a M-W 11 is too small for me, and I've posted before my right hand pinky being really short, and my affinity for all things British. So I have my Besson, and play the souzy when needed outdoors.

So what you get will not make you a better player, but tailoring your selection to your situation, like bloke said, can help bring out your best. And don't forget little things that a tech can do for you that smaller brass players don't need: adjusted mouthpipe and receiver for angle and height, position of thumb ring, etc.

Fore!

[imperialbari]

The tension between these two camps will never go away.

Even if I voted with the current majority of the poll, I really don’t see any such tension.

It all begins with the musicianship of the player, be it acquired by natural talent or be it developed through woodshedding. Aside from good ears and good lips I have had to fight hard for any achieved skill. Reading letters and reading music is anything but a natural gift of mine.

However I am extremely strong with numbers, so I must have developed some statistical method to tell, what the most likely outcome of problematic reading situations would be.

When one develops as a musician, one also will learn to know which equipment will work for one.

Due to asthma I have been forced to be able to relax at will. Resistant instruments will induce attacks immediately.

Hence I go for high quality instruments a bit above average in size (but not for 6/4). I use a very large mpc (PT-50) for all of my 7 basses but for the two Brits with small receivers.

I know how to modify backbores to reduce turbulences, which create resistance and undesirable overtones (I guess RD would call that resistance by the term of impedance, and I guess he would be right, but my tech English is limited).

I have been through very few tuba mouthpieces: a Danish Elsberg, Conn Helleberg, DW1L, and the said PT-50. For the Brits I have had to supplement with DW 1 and 4 respectively, but then my 1870 Besson Eb is not that much larger than a modern euph.

Set out a goal for your sound, practice like a madman, get yourself a bit of knowledge, and you will know the short road to the right equipment.

Only had the chance to try out one of my basses before buying it. Haven’t regretted any of the others, even if one looks like a disaster, and some of them have had minor problems like leaks, which I could fix myself.

Again: set out a goal for yourself, and you soon will learn how to find the efficient road also equipmentwise.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[Stefan Kac]

A very few are able to analyze self and equipment accurately enough to combine their analyses with efficiently directed work to accomplish something remarkable.

When one develops as a musician, one also will learn to know which equipment will work for one.

I think these guys hit the nail on the head. Not only does one improve over time with practice, but artistic considerations change as well. If you do the work, you might emerge able to make great music with your current axe yet also more clearly able to recognize its strengths and weaknesses relative to what you do with it.