What's the smallest useable Eb tuba available?

[cjk]

is your Yamaha 381 really too heavy?


I'll be happy to take it off your hands.

[Steve Inman]

Hey Bob1062 (et. al.),

Thanks for the comments and ideas. The method behind my madness is that I'm seriously considering selling my Conn 56J and YEB-381 to fund the purchase of a Willson 3400 as a one-tuba-fits-all solution. My playing is primarily quintet / brass choir / pit orchestra / community band / church orchestra playing. The church orchestra size is about 40 players total (winds and strings) and I'm sure the Willson could handle that reasonably. The only larger/louder group would be the community band, but there are always several tubas present. Having heard a side-by-side comparison (local community symphony tubist) of my Conn 56J and the Willson Eb, it seems the sound output is very similar with the Willson's voice being a bit more focused / clearer. I'm guessing a blindfolded listener could not tell the difference between the Willson Eb and the smaller-belled Conn 52J, based on this experience. To avoid having to switch back/forth between different fingerings with limited practice time available, I'm investigating this compromise solution. If I do this, I don't want to schlep around the Willson for any strolling ("dangerous") outdoor gigs -- hence my interest in a low-cost (but workable) stablemate. Thanks for listening -- a few more comments below ....

Steve, as I see it you have some interesting options-

-Buy any old half decent small Eb (If I find what I am looking for, you can buy mine! )

Now that you know my rationale, any/every-one is welcome to send me leads on such a horn. Based on what I see, I don't expect to have to pay more than $500-ish, I would think ....

-Do you have a euphonium?

Why, yes I do! And this may well be my ideal solution. I bought a nice, used silver plate King 2280 off eBay a couple years ago. Horn is in good condition, case is "okay". If I get treble clef music for it, I'd be ready to go immediately -- same fingerings!

-I have read in your posts that you like the sound of a rotary bass tuba, but don't like the bad low range or pitch issues. How about picking this up as a secondary bass tuba?
http://baltimorebrass.net/index.php?cat=5 (EDIT- it didn't come up right, I mean the used Cerveny Eb)
Cerveny's have a reputation of being light and I believe Jay Bertolet has written good things about this model. It's not so expensive that you would need to sell one of your instruments, and would give you an alternate bass tuba for orchestral use. You wouldn't need to try to make it work in quintet or a full group, since you already have 2 good tubas.

Thanks for pointing out this one. I had seen it recently. I played one years ago at Brasswind and wasn't impressed from the low BBb on down to the pedal Eb. But in combination with a Willson, that would provide me with the rotary bass tuba sound and a smaller horn, to be sure. If I end up with a Willson, I may not immediately have the budget for this one, however. But that option is quite good.

- http://oberloh.com/sales/sales.htm (EDIT- didn't come up right either, I mean the recording bell silver Conn on top of the tuba page)
A recording bell! I have a Lyon&Healy look-a-like and it is a good horn with a fine sound and really useable intonation.

-Have you considered a sousaphone? Possibly fiberglass or maybe an Eb? Are there fiberglass Ebs?

There used to be a family in my area who discovered an old Eb sousy in a barn loft. I'll have to go track them down and see if it's still available!

Thanks for all the replies. Feel free to send me tips regarding any little Eb tubas you see wandering aimlessly about, looking for a good home.

Cheers,

[greatk82]

http://www.dillonmusic.com/HeleoCart/Pr ... %2bmNfU%3d

[Kevin Hendrick]

I just bought the Amati AEB 211 on the german ebay (I live in Italy).
It's marked Lignatone but it is surely an Amati. When I receive it, I'll tell you how it plays

Thanks, Carlo! I'll be very interested to hear about it.

the AEB 211 seems very small...

The specifications look that way -- not much bigger than a large euph (and probably not much heavier, either). Should be easy to handle and transport.

[iiipopes]

I believe some of the older French Eb tubas (Courtois, Couesenon, etc.) had really small bores and bells, say 13 or 14 inches.

[Lew]

I had an old, circa 1880s, Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory Eb bass that had about a 13-14" bell. I don't remember the bore and sold it about a year ago. It must have weighed about 12lbs or less. I used it for Tuba Christmas a couple of times. It was clearly a high pitch horn, but I was able to play it in tune with the main slide pulled as far as it would go. I think that if you could find a playable horn from that era, more correctly called a bombardon, it would probably be as small and light an Eb tuba as you are likely to find. I think I paid about $300 for mine.

[Chuck(G)]

Well, Carlo has probably seen one of these, but I don't know if you'd call it a tuba, rather than a tuba-shaped-object.



Bell size is 13" and it stands about 32" tall and bore is about 0.500; it takes a tenor-shank trombone mouthpiece. Made by Orsi in Milan.

Now that's an Eb tuba. If someoene wanted to open a discussion about the smallest BBb tuba, here's a photo of a little baby next to a Willson 3400:



Bell size is just 9"; bore is 0.550" and takes a bass-shank trombone or small shank tuba mouthpiece. Made by Finke in Germany.

[Donn]

Bell size is 13" and it stands about 32" tall and bore is about 0.500; it takes a tenor-shank trombone mouthpiece. Made by Orsi in Milan..

I have a little 3V Eb Orsi, in my opinion a pretty decent instrument for what it is, but it's much bigger than this. I have seen pictures of an Orsi with these spindly dimensions, captioned "cimbasso" - what do you think about that?

[windshieldbug]

What's the smallest usable Eb tuba available?

[Chuck(G)]

I have a little 3V Eb Orsi, in my opinion a pretty decent instrument for what it is, but it's much bigger than this. I have seen pictures of an Orsi with these spindly dimensions, captioned "cimbasso" - what do you think about that?

I asked the Orsi people in Milan about this, and they called it a "cimbasso". But if I understand my Italian tems, "cimbasso" is sort of a nebulous term, so it may not mean much.

I've played it in quintet where the part asks for a trombone and it seems to work pretty well--more "edge" to the sound than a euphonium.

[Chuck(G)]

The Amati AEB211 is not an Orsi. First of all it's czech, not italian...

Pardon me, Carlo, but did anyone say that it was? The topic was "smallest Eb tuba". I happen to have an Orsi tuba-shaped object that's very small.

It's not an Amati--it's Italian, although I bought it from a fellow in Germany.

[kegmcnabb]

I believe a Tubenet user was trying to sell an Amati Eb that he had bought off from Oberloh's.

Oh yah, dat would be me, eh!?!

Here she is...

Not perfect but a nice horn. They still have the pic and description up at http://www.oberloh.com/sales/sales.htm Click on tuba, scroll down and take a look.

$425 plus shipping ($100 less than I paid a little over a year ago) and now it includes a mouthpiece (a really cheap Denis Wick knockoff).

You can PM me or email me at the address below.

She's a fun little horn...I will miss her. Liked to use her for Christmas caroling, but now have a cool Reynolds "Eefer" and the spousal unit seems to thinks that there are too many instruments hanging around the house. Oh well, marriage is compromise, right fellas?

[Chuck(G)]

Here my Bb Orsi:

Carlo, your image did not come through, but I assume that this is the one you were talking about:

http://fanfara.altervista.org/karol/pics/orsi1.jpg

The last time I spoke with Orsi, they would still make the BBb upright cimbasso on special order.

Older Italian tubas seem to span a wide range of designs. I once owned a Rampone&Cazzani BBb tuba that was the opposite of my little Orsi--it had a bore of 0.900" (22.8 mm) and a huge bell 22.5" (572 mm), but the bottom bow was no larger than the one on a Besson 983 Eb tuba! The valves were so big that one's fingers got very tired after awhile. The design was very similar to the Kalison Daryl Smith model--just much larger.

[windshieldbug]

Older Italian tubas seem to span a wide range of designs

Indeed! I have a silver Paolo Rondoni rotary 4V Eb that was made after 1914 that is one the largest Eb's I've ever played... I got it from my teacher. It has a huge, glorious, dark sound (but the intonation's awful... and I couldn't fix it, either ).