Budget BBb tuba

[15vb]

I'm hoping to (in the near future) upgrade to a better BBb tuba. My school has King 2341's and new ST. Pete 203N's. The ST. Pete's are nothing short of mortifying. I use the King's 99% of the time. My issue with the King is that its bore is too small.

I was wondering if anyone had any reccomendations for cheap-ish (by todays standards ) piston BBb tubas.

I have looked at the eastman models, and I'm not interested in any jinbao type of horn, so I figured I'd ask the tuba gurus online.

[The Brute Squad]

If you want something not Chinese and cheapish, your best bet is probably to try your luck in the For Sale section.

[anotherjtm2]

Nice Bb tubas show up in the For Sale section pretty often, so keep an eye on that. If larger bore at a "cheap-ish" price is an important feature, maybe you should look at rotary valves.

[anotherjtm2]

Or maybe not. Somehow, the few Bb tubas listed recently might be too expensive. What kind of price do you mean by cheapish?

[15vb]

What kind of price do you mean by cheapish?

By cheap-ish I mean the absolute maximum is $5,000

[PlayTheTuba]

Well King 1241's and old or new style King 2341's are always good. A Miraphone 186 BBb can be found at times around 5,000 or less. I think the 4/4 Jupiter is decent. And I remember the St Pete BBb being decent too... or maybe because I have only tried brand new demo units? Doubt you'll find a used Brazilian made Nirshl BBb but the last one I played at the Army Band Workshop around 2010 was quite good. If you can find a Big Mouth Brass BBb should also be good too. I thought the two Conn tubas and the Marzan at Baltimore Brass were nice. I preferred the raw brass Conn BBb more (the link on top) than the silver one though. All of the tubas I have mentioned except for those particular Kings of course have larger bores.

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

https://www.baltimorebrasscompany.com/p ... -tuba.aspx

Even though I have not played this tuba at all, but from what have read about Martin tubas over the years their 6/4 BBb tubas should be very nice. If you do not mind getting a 6/4 tuba. And no I do not personally know the seller. Wish I had the money though for it.
https://www.tubaforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=5761

Best of luck!

[FujiiFilm17]

If you can find one, a B&S 3301, sometimes branded as a B&S PT2-P, VMI (like the one I have) or F. Schmidt is a solid 4/4 sized, 4-valve piston BBb. Despite the variety of names/stencil branding, they're all essentially the same instrument, built in Germany at the B&S factory.

There's also the 3302 that has a 5th rotary valve.

They come up for sale from time to time and in the past have all been around $4-5k.

[Sousaswag]

The VMI 3302 is an AWESOME tuba. I owned one as my first horn and bought it for $3500. Huge bang for your buck compared to anything else in that range. If you can find one, I'd strongly suggest taking it.

[PlayTheTuba]

FujiiFilm17 and Sousagswag are absolutely correct. I forgot about the VMI 3301 tuba. Absolutely amazing and definitely should be on anyone's list.

[Art Hovey]

http://galvanizedjazz.com/tuba.html
Scroll down to #20. I am ready to part with this instrument, and it will be in your price range.
It's similar to the King but with bigger bore.
Send me a pm or email if you are interested.
-Art-

[SWE]

http://galvanizedjazz.com/tuba.html
Scroll down to #20. I am ready to part with this instrument, and it will be in your price range.
It's similar to the King but with bigger bore.
Send me a pm or email if you are interested.
-Art-

Freaking cool!