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I played one of those yamaha 4 valve tubas when giving a lesson recently, and I could barely even play it. Is it just me or are they much taller than most tubas? I'm about 5'9, but I had to have the thing hanging between my legs and tilted about 45 degrees in order to get the mouthpiece at my mouth.

The lead pipe is the culprit, rather than the height of the horn, I think. I found this tuba to be ergonomically awful in the year or so I played one, very uncomfortable to hold, play, manipulate slides--in short, never again will I play one of those beasts!
ps--I'm 5'10" and it wouldn't matter if I were 6'10" as far as the ergonomics.

pps-----and don't even get me started on the valves! Aargh!

I am somewhere around the height of you guys. I played a 321 all through high school. The key is that it is not a horn you place on your leg or play straight up. I always sat it on the edge of a chair and pointed at almost 45 degrees. However once this is done you still have to deal with crappy intonation and a host of other issues. YMMV

I find that ALL top-action tubas are inconvenient for my style of playing. The YBB-321 ranks right up there with the Conn 20J for being a big pain! When I'm playing a top-loader, I always feel like I'm trying to climb the thing! I guess it's just a matter of what you get used to. It seems like there's nothing like 'the first one'. (We are talking about horns here... aren't we? )

gees... and the kids I was teaching on Friday thought their YBB105's and YBB 103's were big

I find the Yamaha 321 uncomfortable to play because of the hand position, but the leadpipe sits at just about the right height for me (6' 5").

It seems I am almost alone in liking the YBB321. I do agree it is rather tall and can be a bit awkward, but I have never found this to be the case. I played one for a year in high school and for a year in college so I have a bit of experience with them. I am 5'9". The only problem I had was with the valve guide for the second valve in the second tuba.

To each his/her own,
Sou

SpartanContra wrote:

prototypedenNIS wrote:gees... and the kids I was teaching on Friday thought their YBB105's and YBB 103's were big

elemetary schoolers?.....or Euphonium players?

grade 7 kids. 13 year olds...

I'm not a huge fan of these 321's... I don't think I'd want a valve top, 4/4 BBb unless it was a compensating horn. Aside from "Ghosts" by McNeff, I haven't had the need for a compensator. (but dang that piece is a beast when using a CC)

I'm big enough to play these... they're okay horns... but I'd rather have rotaries... that and I think I prefer CC over BBb now anyways.

tuben wrote:...
With that said, I'm 6'1" and can not comfortably play a Besson BBb as the mouthpiece hits me between the eyes. One of our conductors in the brass band is British and I asked once about those massive tubas and their players, he said, "Oh yeah, they recruit giant apes to play those!"

Robert Coulter

Did it hae the ball buster on the bow? (2" tall brass ball jutting down from the bottom of the bow, supposedly to balance the instrument on)

I've often offered to remove these for schools, but most of the teachers don't realize how much of a pain they could be for someone either not tall enough or someone who plays with the horn on their lap.

this horn has a little one
http://cgi.ebay.com/1971-Besson-4-valve ... dZViewItem
these ones have it bad
http://cgi.ebay.com/1-2-SIZE-TUBA-EEb-B ... dZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/TUBA-BBb-BOOSEY-HAW ... dZViewItem

prototypedenNIS wrote:

SpartanContra wrote:

prototypedenNIS wrote:gees... and the kids I was teaching on Friday thought their YBB105's and YBB 103's were big

...

tuben wrote:...
...

Robert Coulter

Did it hae the ball buster on the bow? (2" tall brass ball jutting down from the bottom of the bow, supposedly to balance the instrument on)

...

That ball on the bottom of the Bessons was designed to snap into a receiver on a harness that was used for marching. There was also a jacket known as a 'half cover' that went over the lower part of the Besson tubas.

A YBB-321 is my only tuba. I am 6' even, and it is the perfect height when resting on the chair. I have become so used to it, that I can't comfortably play a horn that I have to hold in my lap. For community band use, it is a very good weapon.

I play a YBB-321 every day in band I think its a bit large I am 6' even and its alright on the edge of the chair at no angle I find it hard to reach the 4th valve somtimes. I rap a bandana around the pipe you place your thumb. It is about 20 cents sharp at an upper Eb and the tuneing slides are deffinatly hard to munipulate. It's diffenatly a student horn to me I want my own horn somthing a bit more reliable plus I wot have to wait to get it fixed if it breaks down. Its fairly easy to play all around if you can actually play it.(pedal note are easy for me).

The YBB-321 was OK for Lisa, but I don't know how tall she is.