Pulling Slides

[Wilco]

+1

That's exactly what I like so much about my 188. There are only a few notes which need adjusting. Since trombone is my first instrument playing the 188 comes closest to that instrument. Since it's so in tune it enables my to find and play in the center of the pitch very easyly. That bugged me about my former tuba (a 1291 BBb), which has good tuning --> but not nearly perfect.

[tbn.al]

When I played a Miraphone I used the first valve slide much like I used my trombone slide. I was used to it so no big deal. Then my church bought a VMI 3301 and I was usered into a whole new world. Not only could my left hand spend 95% of the time simply holding the horn, but I was able to concentrate much more of my mental energies on making music rather than getting the length of the tube right.

Thanks to Joe, I now play an even better in tune tuba than the 3301. My Olds O-99, after his redo on the slide lengths, is within 15 cents on every note except 24 combos. I can easily lip to pitch because it is not so drastic and with its American overtones series it doesn't change the tone quality enough to be noticeable. I couldn't lip the Miraphone at all without hearing a noticably different tone quality. I bought the Olds trying to get close as I could to the 3301 with less heft for the old man to schlep. I played the 3301 this week for the first time since June and found I actually prefer the Olds even without the weight consideration.

Yes the Miraphone had a wonderful sound of its own, but it's not worth it to me to go through the gyrations necessary to get it out the bell in an acceptable fashion. Now if someone else is doing the work it's a different story. I love playing with Tuben's Alex. The last time we played together I noticed he was regularly pulling not one or two slides, but three. Georgeous sound, and in tune as well, but simply too much work for me. Call me lazy!

[iiipopes]

That's exactly why I have the horns I do: the Besson is damn near perfect, my 186 only needs 1+2 on midline D and just an occasional pull otherwise depending on the inversion of the chord and the tuning of the rest of the ensemble, and the 38K has the conversion of the upper loop to a slide that sits right by my left hand.

[Rick Denney]

I don't seem to know how to use the quote feature, but ditto what Bloke said earlier. That's one of the reasons I like my Gnagey tuba so much.

Press the "quote" button in the upper right of the post in question, rather than the "post reply" button. Then, go in and delete the parts of the quote not relevant. You'll see the "quote" tags, and then you'll know how to create your own quotes as needed.

Rick "easy, schmeazy" Denney

[Bill Troiano]

Thanks, Rick! Looking forward to seeing you again in Arlington. I'll be bringing my 2 boys this time. One just graduated from college (tuba major), and the other will graduate from HS this year and become a euph major someplace. They're all psyched about the trip.

[tbn.al]

You are not going to get anything objective from me. I 'm just a poor old bass trombone player trying to survive at the bottom of a quintet blowing into this odd lump of brass in my lap.

Here are some personal observations, not to be confused at all with objective rationale.

1. The Miraphone, the Bielefelder, as well as the Amati, the only European rotary tubas I have spent time with, all had a very centered, very focused tone quality. If I were a trumpet player I might say they slotted well. If you got your chops close to the right frequency the horn would almost pull you into the correct note. Lots of fundamental in the overtone series. I really like that sound because it is much like a trombone sound. Consequently if you tried to bend the pitch with your chops the sound changed a lot, and not for the better.

2. The Olds as well as the Conn stencil Eb I played for a while were much more forgiving of exact lip placement. You can move any pitch almost a 1/2 step with embouchure and not hear a whole lot of change in the tone quality. You had better really have the pitches in your ear to play these horns though, especially sight reading. The sound is broader in that that there is less of the fundamental and more of the other overtones present. This is documented by using a tuner which separates the overtones series by strength of pitch.

3. The VMI 3301 is almost exactly in the middle of the two camps.

My quintet likes me to play the Olds because they say the broader tone is easier to tune to. I don't believe we play better in tune when I play the Olds. I think the reality is that it just allows them more pitch leeway without screaming "YOU ARE OUT OF TUNE" in their ear. I like the Olds because is is a smaller sound, more flexible, better response especially at ppp, and it only weighs 16 lbs.

As for German vs American. Someone else can take up that fight. I don't know enough to discuss it. There are several previous threads on it. Log on and go for it.

[MartyNeilan]

...with its American overtones series...

Does this mean there is some objective definition for "American" tone, after all? What is an "American Overtone series", and how does it differ from whatever a Non-American (does that mean German?) Overtone series might be?

Regards,

DG

It's what you use to play this piece: