Time for a new horn?

[tuba_dude07]

I got a St. Petersburg 202N BBb as a graduation present and I've been playing it for almost 2 and a half years now. While I love playing on it, I'm not sure as if I should switch to a CC or stick with the BBb?

[WVUtubaman12]

Stick with whatever you sound good on man.

my $0.02

[Douglas]

Why are you thinking about changing equipment?

Doug

[tuba_dude07]

Well I just think that playing on a CC horn would be better solo playing and it just seems more professional to have a CC rather than a BBb. But I digress.

[Rick Denney]

Talking about what you intend to do with the instrument is never a digression when bringing up this topic.

Do it some more: What are your performance goals? Are you a performance major? An education major? A hobbyist?

Unless you are a performance major, I doubt that the money you spend getting a good C tuba will reward you much, at least until later in life when you do it just for fun. If you want to learn a different key for the fun of it, look for an F--that will really open up solo literature.

As an educator or hobbyist, a Bb will serve you just as well as a C, unless you just want to play C. But if you have professional performance aspirations, then you'll need to be competent on all four keys of tubas at some point.

Your teacher, who knows your goals and your playing, will give you an answer about 5000 times more valuable than anything on an Internet forum. If you don't have a teacher, then spend the money on that and use your current instrument.

Rick "who plays Bb and F and wishes he'd had good lessons while in school" Denney

[TUbajohn20J]

There is no need to buy a C tuba if you have a nice BBb and sound good on it. The reason many people (especially performance majors) buy C tubas is because they were simply pushed as the better horn for some time. There ARE a lot more professional quality C tubas on the market than professional BBb tubas. But there are some VERY nice BBb tubas. Your instructors were probably told to switch to C, so they teach their students to switch to C. I just bought a brand new Willson 3100 BBb and love it. It cant do anything a C tuba can't do. If you play a BBb tuba and play it well enough, no one cares what key the tuba is in.