Review of M&M/Jin Bao compensating Eb tuba 'Fletcher' clone

[bisontuba]

Hi-
The clone IMHO is better--better pitch and sound.
Regards-
mark

[b.williams]

Thank you.

[Michael Bush]

That amuses me listing as "American Heritage" when it is clone of a classic British tuba

Yep. This is the real problem with Schiller and Laabs. The marketing seems at best manipulative. The big problem is not really the instruments themselves, which more and more owners (including me) say stand up fine on their own merits.

Serious people read the BS on their web site and eBay auctions and think that if the horns have to be propped up in this romantic and probably fictional setting to sell them, there must be something wrong with them as musical instruments.

I wish they'd get rid of all the unseemly, ridiculous, and almost certainly fictitious blather about the city of Frankfurt and "Gustav Schiller", and the nonsense of attributing "the American tuba sound" to German and English style horns, apparently to patronize Americans who may be open to a patriotic appeal. All this is unnecessary because the tubas stand up well enough on their own, and raises the question, at least at first and probably unfairly, whether it would be wise to send these people money.

Why not just be straight about what they are? They're nothing to be ashamed of when you take them at face value.

Other music stores import the same or similar instruments without all this rhetorical paraphernalia. Other eBay sellers sell them, for about the same price. What's wrong with that?

[Donn]

Whoa, next you're going to want them to identify the entity responsible for making them!

[imperialbari]

Have you ever played a late 1970's early 1980's vintage Boosey and Hawkes 15" bell EEb tuba? If so, how does the "Fletcher" clone compare?
Thanks again.

Owning a British made Besson 981 from 1999 I am not going to dismiss the large and warm sound of the design efforts by John Fletcher and Denis Wick. Yet not quite able to act as a contrabass tuba in the range just above pedal Eb.

I have heard the old 15" Eb compers played in extremely ugly fashions, when they were overloaded. However their qualities shouldn’t be dismissed either. They give more clarity to the often troublesome, that is scored too high in the range, tutti Eb bass line in brass bands. They blend better with the mid-range brasses and put a more defined octave on the contrabass line.

Klaus

[b.williams]

I think of the Eb tuba as another color that adds to the overall sound. I think that they relate to the Bb tuba in the same way that the baritone horn relates to the euphonium. Each color can stand alone, but they are most effective together.

[iiipopes]

I have heard the old 15" Eb compers played in extremely ugly fashions, when they were overloaded. However their qualities shouldn’t be dismissed either. They give more clarity to the often troublesome, that is scored too high in the range, tutti Eb bass line in brass bands. They blend better with the mid-range brasses and put a more defined octave on the contrabass line.

I've been saying that for years. Finally, someone agrees with me!

If Besson et al are going to make the BBb comps with 19 inch bells, I wish they would make the eefers with 17 inch bells instead of 19 inch bells for this very reason.

[Wyvern]

I heard that the 19" bell version was originally produced specifically for John Fletcher to keep Georg Solti happy when he was conducting the LSO. It is doubtful if the larger bell is entirely an advantage in a brass band situation, as it reduces clarity. Yes, the 15" bell Imperial's can bark if pushed really hard, so a 17" bell would probably provide the best balance as suggested by iiipopes.

[imperialbari]

The 17" bells on compensating Eb basses are not entirely unknown: Besson 980 & 983.

Never had a chance to try the 980. Comparing the 983 and 981 lead me to take the 981, but my criteriae were more about my personal liking of the wider sound than thinking along the needs of a band. Soon thereafter I entered a band with a weak BBb manning, where I chose to take much of the Eb line an octave down.

Klaus