Can the pt-6 be considered a b.a.t?

[Tabor]

There are plenty of places where it's appropriate to play that loud, the low E in Uranus, for example....

[iiipopes]

Hey! I also resemble that remark, being 44 years old, 5' 10" and 210lb! (Only a couple of years ago I was 170 with a 35 inch waist. Damn those beta blockers, rat poison blood thinners, and a genetic anti-clotting deficiency situation that screwed my metabolism royally! At least I'm the first guy in my family in over 100 years to live to tell about it!)

[tofu]

we can get depth and roundness to a greater extent than with smaller instruments.

I think this reason for playing a big tuba is too often not realized, particularly by those which have never played a BAT.

The main reason for playing a 6/4 tuba is quality of sound, rather than loudness. .

This is always what stuck me as a HS student when I would go hear the CSO and Arnold Jacobs on the York was the amazing depth and roundness of sound he had with the orchestra without appearing to play loudly. I always marveled at that and was what I wanted to try and replicate with my HS group. It is one of those things I believe you have to hear in person as I just have not heard it on recordings like it feels when you hear it live. He and the trombone section put such a great bottom on the music.

[Tubaguy56]

well, I mean, for me it wasn't the concept of sound, I could get a big full round dark sound off a smaller horn (such as a 4/4), but, I couldn't get that sound with an appropriate volume. I can also sound like a 4/4 on my 6/4, It's all versatility.

[Rick Denney]

The main reason for playing a 6/4 tuba is quality of sound, rather than loudness. I have no trouble penetrating through the largest orchestra on my Eb's, but can just not get the depth and roundness of sound of my big Neptune.

In my experience, once you have played a BAT, your concept of THE tuba sound changes.

Yes, and yes. I think I can get more voltage out of the Miraphone, but more current out of the Holton. The wattage is controlled by what I put into the mouthpiece.

For those of you not up on electricity, wattage (power) = voltage times current. At a given power, you can have more energy (voltage) or more flow (current). The big horn provides more of a flow of sound. The total power probably remains the same, controlled by what the player can produce. It's sorta like putting your thumb over the end of a hose. You can make the stream a lot more intense by doing so, but you can't make it produce more water. A big tuba is a fat hose that moves a lot of water slowly, while a smaller tuba produces more of an intense stream. The combination of the two is limited by what comes out of the faucet, but even a dribble can be either a flood or a stream.

It wasn't when I played a BAT that my sound concept started leaning in that direction. It's when I heard Mike Sanders for the first time on his Yorkbrunner, after having listened to him several years on his Alexander. The change was an epiphany for me, even though I did and still do thoroughly enjoy the Alexander power sound. Mike's sound on the Yorkbrunner gained color and a friendly, engaging quality, similar to the silvery tone produced by the very best flute players. It was definitely not "darker", but bigger, rounder, and more interesting.

It was 20 years later before I got a big tuba of my own, though I took an intermediate step with a 5/4 tuba of more American design concept.

Rick "preferring a flood of sound rather than a stream" Denney

[iiipopes]

Hey Rick -- interesting analogy. It is a good one. When I played a venerable SVT head tube amplifier for bass, I was always blowing the inverter tube into the power tubes pushing too much current through them by my style of playing, never from plain turn up the knob voltage volume, and not because I had the bass knob turned up, either. Actually, I would most often play with the bass tone control @ 11:00 running through the 10's cabinet, less if it were a 15's cabinet.

[windshieldbug]

This is Spinal Tap:

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause, blank look and snapping chewing gum] These go to eleven.