TubeNet

Ok, I expalin my questions to the tubenet comunity:

After play 10 years a B&S 3100W (nogt very good one in their specie) and now a YFB-621S (that I liked many things) I thougth that it´s time to look for a new F in my life with a better tone in sound.

So, I´m asking "only" for the virtues of each tuba that I´m interested on, so its the motive that I mentioned "an inusual opinion" (because I learned on my ex-3100W how to play a "non easy" F tuba).

There are the list:

Melton 45S/46S: 18,5 to 21,5mm bore and 42cm. bell
Melton 45/46: 18,5 to 19,5mm bore and 38cm. bell
Miraphone 181C/281C goldbrass: 19,6 to 21,2mm bore and 42 and 40cm. bell respectively.

The use for this horn is solo and quintet use.

cdatuba wrote: and now a YFB-621S (that I liked many things) I thougth that it´s time to look for a new F in my life ....

.... and quintet use.

IMHO, the F you have now will work better in quintet than any of the suggestions on your want list. That "color" "brilliance" "sparkle" or whatever you are looking for in your new solo F will not mean much in a quintet. However, the ease of the low register and rock solid low register intonation of that Yamaha will, and the compact but full sound adds a nice bottom to any small ensemble.

Can any of the horns on your want list work in a quintet? Yes, all of them can.

Ideally, I would say keep the 621 for quintet and get the "German rotary F" for solos.

A couple of horns not on your list that might serve double duty admirably, are the new Mirafone piston F and the Gronitz piston F. Tony out in CA (formerly of low brass werks) may still have his Gronitz piston F for sale.

hello,

I proudly own the MW 46, one of the options You listed in Your original post.
I also happen to live very close to Flums, Switzerland (home of WILLSON tubas), where I just spent an afternoon to testplay horns.
Based on these two facts, I´d like to know what You´re looking for in a new F-tuba.

I bought and used the MW 46 as a quintet horn in 1993. I´ve been becoming increasingly fond of this horn, for these reasons:
- it never let me down
- its sound is variable enough to support a diverse quintet program (offers sound colors suitable for anything between Bach and Heavy Metal)
One thing is: I used to think it was "closing down" as opposed to "opening up" when going for the higher regions.
Over time (including heavy use of CC and BBb tubas), I found out it was ME rather than the horn being the problem.
It has a bright and elegant sound quality not striving to sound like a contrabass tuba.
That I consider a good thing if You own a CC or BBb along with Your F.
If You rather want to rely on one F tuba to do many things for You, let me recommend the new WILLSON 3200 XL series. Fat horn, use a big mouthpiece on it and it´ll sound like a large EEb (Besson and Yamaha 3+1 models come to my mind) tuba. I enjoyed it very much, and it may be a very rare horn on the used market in several years, maybe.
Unfortunately, I didn´t really take the time to play it with an F tuba mouthpiece.

In case You´re anywhere near Austria, DO contact me about that Yamaha 621 You write about.

Keep the 621

J.c.S.

Thank you.

#Edit# Sorry: I forgot to say that I have another YFB-621S to my disposition property of the school when I´m tuba teacher, so I don´t miss it too much .

So I ask another time for the good things about the tubas of list and wich one has the beautiful tone for an F tuba (not interested in wich is the best).

Thank you again.