Best key for all a round use

[tubatooter1940]

Hi gang,
I bought an E flat King -bell forward,three valves on top for cheap on
E-bay.
I use it for pop rock and country with a vocalist/guitarist and a har-
monica player.Our lead singer is a low tenor or a high baritone.He real-
ly likes the range of the E-flat in that the bass line is an octave or two
below him and tuba lead lines can be nice and high-maybe an octave or
more above him.
Love that King!
Tubatooter1940

[tubacdk]

If I had to take one tuba to a gig and I didn't know what the gig was, I'd take my RM-43 CC tuba, which I really think is the ideal all-around tuba. It's certainly not a BAT and it's not a bass tuba, but it fakes those things really well. I use it in quintet all the time and love it, and I've also used it on Mahler symphonies without complaint. I haven't found a situation yet where I didn't think the RM-43 could handle it.

So my vote is for a smallish contrabass that has guts.

-ck

[imperialbari]

.... I've found with hard, chop-busting work, (at least in the past), that I can conquer high range as much on CC as I can on my E-flat. I cannot, however, play in the lowest register on my E-flat with the same clarity and intonation.

I agree with your approach!

However for me the situation is the other way round, as I play Eb and BBb tubas. I would have to work more than possible for me to make the hugaphones sound elegantly in the upper range, even if getting the notes would not be the biggest problem.

It would rather be possible to make the best of my Eb's, the 981, work in the contrabass range. Reading BBb parts would not be the worst problem after having played Bb cornet parts on Eb cornet.

Large BBb's are the archetype tubas and they are fun to play. But having access to them implies, that one does not take the low range of ones bass tubas too much to the workbench, so there is a bit of potential to exploit.

However one of the benefits of these years is that many of us can afford more than one tuba. That was rare among amateurs 40 years ago.

Let's enjoy the diversity!

Klaus

[Rob Wilson]

After retiring from 25 years of teaching music I came back to playing tuba for enjoyment last year. I purchased a Willson 3400 because of the versitility of a large quality EEb. With a MF4 I can play like a solo F horn. With a MF3B it sounds like a good CC. I do most of my practice with a MF2, it is most like the Bach 18 that I played all through High School. Most of my work is with Brass Choir, Dixiland Band and Community Bands. Being that we play mostly in flat keys the fingering is added (easier) by the instruments key. When I do use my Willson for orchestra it is with a local Community Orchestra and the music selections are not so advanced that I can not work-over the short hard sections till they are perfect. Overall I am very pleased with my choice of a EEb Willson 3400.

God Bless,
Rob W <><