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So I'm strongly thinking about buying one of Sam's tubas and wanted to get some feedback on them. The thing I'm worried about is the bore size. Every contrabass tuba I have played with the .687 bore "broke up" easily(Conn 56j, King 2341, Rust cut York). So I just want to hear from people who own or have played some of Sam's tubas. Thanks in advance.

I've got one of Sam's horns also, and I love it. I never would have thought that I could get so much out of a .687 bore, but with Sam's creation, it is very possible, all without breaking up. Intonation is great from top to bottom regardless of what volume you're at. It is truley a marvelous horn.
I use a LOUD LM-7 on it in wind band/ brass band to produce a gloriously full and robust sound when needed. For quintet and solo situations, I use a Helleberg for a lighter, more focussed sound.
Sam also built me a bonus. My 3rd & 5th valve slides are interchangable so that, when I switch them and hold the 5th down, I've got a great Bb horn as well; with the same accuracy in intonation up and down the scale as when playing in C. It's super in brass band when reading Bb treble clef.
Like Ben, I'm also in Indy. If you do get over this way, you'd be more than welcome to try my horn as well. I can't say enough good things about Sam. He is a very talented musician, a real gentleman to do business with, and he really knows what he's doing on these conversions he's building.

Breakup can be attributed to a lot of things, starting with embouchure and breath support, all the way through to bell flare, diameter and rim thickness, and every detail in between that would fill up Sean's bandwidth. Bore is actually one of the more insignificant factors.

I bought my "YorKing gnageyphone" last summer and have used it in quintet, band, orchestra and recording with equal success. "Cracking" is definitely not a problem. Even response, great dark sound, clear, resonant, big solid sound. Best aspect, I never have to move a slide, except to get rid of condensation now and then.

While I was visiting Sam, he let me try 2 cimbassi he had built, one in F and one in Eb. They were both exquisite. No "donut hole" in the F, very even in response throughout. But if I could justify the expense, I'd probably go for the Eb. Very easy to play, responsive, in tune -- just amazing.

Hi-
Sam was in town for a few days visiting Don Harry, and I met up with them at the music hall for the Buffalo Philharmonic to try out Sam's horns--they are amazing! He had two horns with him with the .687 bore--but they played like .810 bore instruments--so open high and low, perfectly centered, pitch right on--incredible. He also had a prototype of a .750 horn with a York bell that was excellent too! Finally, he had his Eb cimbasso that played terrific.
If you are looking for a CC tuba, for the money, you can't go wrong with one of Sam's horns--BTW, he has one which he didn't bring that is for sale on the Tubenet 'For Sale' section that I am sure is amazing--in a large Hall, his horns sounded wonderful. You could use them for anything-solos, quintet, chamber, orchestra, et al--very sweet horns indeed!
Regards-
mark
jonestuba@juno.com

jonesmj wrote:Hi-
If you are looking for a CC tuba, for the money, you can't go wrong with one of Sam's horns--BTW, he has one which he didn't bring that is for sale on the Tubenet 'For Sale' section that I am sure is amazing--in a large Hall, his horns sounded wonderful. You could use them for anything-solos, quintet, chamber, orchestra, et al--very sweet horns indeed!
Regards-
mark
jonestuba@juno.com

Thanks for the kind words about our work.
Just to clarify: One of the horns that Mark is talking about playing in Buffalo is the horn that is listed on the for sale site here.

He makes really good horns, a good number of people from my studio back at BG had them. They keep getting better