Me at a rehearsal with the WSC Colorado Brass Band last June with my 983. Thanks to Don Waltman for the wonderul photos that he takes each and every year with a number of them taken from the "back row" as he is the BBb tuba section leader and an original member of the band. http://dbwphoto.com/Music/Colorado-Bras ... 7442_GguDc
Fall '09 football season at UND, 1st semester as a grad student. It had been way too many years since I had done any serious marching on the field with a sousaphone and trying to keep up with all of those 18-22 year olds was way too much, but I learned a lot from the director about working with a marching band so it was well worth the pain.
Well after seeing the "post your low brass section pictures," I got all nostalgic. Unfortunately two of my favorite pictures aren't from this decade...so I'll post them in here.
First is a picture from 1997's Purdue All-American Marching Band Bandcamp Photo Day! There are 32 or 33 of us in this picture I think. We ended up marching 30 sousaphones in three ranks of 10. I am second from the RIght. There are 20 Silver King Sousaphones of all various shapes and sizes. I am carrying my super-huge 4-valve (we're assuming the Giant here...it certainly seemed bigger than all of the others). The rest are brass King sousaphones from the 70s (I think it's the 70s). Big Bertha (the King Jumbo) is not pictured...she had fallen into disrepair at this point...and was brought out a few years later after an overhaul.
This next picture is from the 1997 Alamo bowl in December of that same year. We had taken delivery of 30 brand new Conn 20Ks. They arrived for us IN San Antonio. It was odd leaving Indiana with no horn and a "trust us...they'll be there" assurance from the staff. They were beautiful. ...and we were so in-tune! I am in there somewhere. This was taken just after the game. I graduated the following May, and I am not sure if I ever played the Conn again since they wanted to keep them fresh for the 1998 football season. That was the only Conn I played until I bought my 40K in January. I am in there somewhere.
jc
MrBasseyPants - jc
My three Kings: 2007 King 2341 | 1935 King Giant 1271 | 1925 King 1265 Jumbo (now with four valves)
...and a 1920s Columbia Tenor Sousaphone
WARNING: This tuba player has been known to get his groove on via bass guitar as well!
MrBasseyPants wrote:Well after seeing the "post your low brass section pictures," I got all nostalgic. Unfortunately two of my favorite pictures aren't from this decade...so I'll post them in here.
First is a picture from 1997's Purdue All-American Marching Band Bandcamp Photo Day! There are 32 or 33 of us in this picture I think. We ended up marching 30 sousaphones in three ranks of 10. I am second from the RIght. There are 20 Silver King Sousaphones of all various shapes and sizes. I am carrying my super-huge 4-valve (we're assuming the Giant here...it certainly seemed bigger than all of the others). The rest are brass King sousaphones from the 70s (I think it's the 70s). Big Bertha (the King Jumbo) is not pictured...she had fallen into disrepair at this point...and was brought out a few years later after an overhaul.
This next picture is from the 1997 Alamo bowl in December of that same year. We had taken delivery of 30 brand new Conn 20Ks. They arrived for us IN San Antonio. It was odd leaving Indiana with no horn and a "trust us...they'll be there" assurance from the staff. They were beautiful. ...and we were so in-tune! I am in there somewhere. This was taken just after the game. I graduated the following May, and I am not sure if I ever played the Conn again since they wanted to keep them fresh for the 1998 football season. That was the only Conn I played until I bought my 40K in January. I am in there somewhere.
jc
wow !!
That's more conn sousaphones than ever inmported into Belgium....
bububassboner wrote:Me and an old Alexander F tuba. This was the horn I learned to play F on Tony Clements now has this horn.
You learned F on those weird Alex 15X? Wow. Definitely the strangest valve set-up I've seen.(Left hand: valve 1-2-5, right hand: 3-6-4.)
Haha. Yep this was my first F tuba. My high school teacher Dr. John Richards handed it to me at the end of a lesson and say, "Here's an F tuba Chuck, I want you to play me a solo next week." I didn't even open the case till I got home. Man that was a LONG week, but I figured it out. That horn was great though. Low notes were there, great pitch, just couldn't do the valve set up.
I'm the handsome chap on the left holding my Conn 20J and my Holton 6/4 BBb. The chap on the right is holding the Rudy 5/4 BBb he's taking back with him to Quebec.
MISERICORDE, n.
A dagger which in mediaeval warfare was used by the foot soldier to remind an unhorsed knight that he was mortal.
- Devil's Dictionary - Ambrose Bierce
The Conn and Holton are very similar in feel, response, flexibility and intonation. Both of these horns are very accurate with great low register, false tones and pedals. The 2nd partial F on both horns is dead accurate, unlike many of the older 6/4 BBb's. The fifth partials are also very good. They both play easily up to the F above the staff as well as down to the pedal EEE.
My Trad jazz group prefers the Holton slightly over the Conn - they said it sounds "fuller". The Rudy is the best horn I've ever played and owned but is too fragile for me - I quit taking it out of the house over a year ago and went instead to the Conn, then the Holton. I also prefer pistons to rotors and recording bells to upright bells.
I did buy the Holton from Dillon's, and the Conn from Bloke last summer. Both of them are short stroke 3 bangers, but the false tones are nearly as good as their valved equivalents on 4 bangers. Certainly close enough for jazz. I prefer the Conn and the Holton to the Miraphones I've recently owned and sold - 186 BBb and 1291 5v BBb. Of the many tubas I've owned over the past 45 years or so I would put the Rudy, both of these horns and the Yamaha 381 S Eb at the top of my list, which also includes compensating 4v Bessons (Bb and Eb) and both King tubas and sousaphones.
MISERICORDE, n.
A dagger which in mediaeval warfare was used by the foot soldier to remind an unhorsed knight that he was mortal.
- Devil's Dictionary - Ambrose Bierce
Both the Conn and the Holton are very sturdy and built like 1939 Buicks. The Rudy has very thin metal and it gets dings and bell creases if the wind blows too hard. Thin metal is great for resonance, but not for durability - particularly for large klutzes like me..
I'm using all of my mouthpieces on the Conn and Holton, ranging from an MF3B (33 mm.) to my ultra large 36+ mm. toiletbowls. The larger bore rotary horns (and the 1291) seem to do better for me with the larger mpc's while these 2 horns do just fine with the MF3B, LM3, LM12, JK T1AA, Bayamo or even the 2 Dr. Young mpc's I have (both the Reynolds and the "improved" version.) I find the Conn and Holton both to be a tad more flexible than was the Rudy and with freer blowing notes going down from the low G way below the staff. The Rudy has slightly more presence and - to some ears - a more gorgeous tone.
MISERICORDE, n.
A dagger which in mediaeval warfare was used by the foot soldier to remind an unhorsed knight that he was mortal.
- Devil's Dictionary - Ambrose Bierce
Tony Clements now has this horn.