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Here in Britain, so far as I know, full-time big-symphony pros ALL* use B&H/Besson compensating Eb's - some exclusively for the entire rep. Added to that, most of these guys also use the same mouthpiece (24AW believe it or not)!
A majority also use a contrabass in C** when the mood takes them - frequently 5/4 or 6/4 either pistons or rotary.
For those British posters who do the audition circuit here, do you see C tubas there? I know a couple of guys who audition and just use their Eb's.

Others will have better knowledge of the UK scene and hopefully will chime-in.

So what are the current trends where you live? Talking about symphonic players really here.



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* Can't think of any on F now. Fletcher's legacy is wholly engrained into the College Professors who tend to insist on mastery of the Eb before adding anything else.
** Can't think of any on Bb now.

HI Malcolm,

I know that at least 2 of the leading pros in London use the Eb most of the time, and a big C when the repertoire calls for it. They also have a small F (MW182) for the really small stuff, but that doesn't get used very often (Mendelssohn, Mahler 1 etc - or "when there's a tuba-hater on the podium"). The big Eb is the "go to" horn, the others are used much less.

In Australia all the orchestral pros use C tubas, and either Eb or F for smaller stuff. I use a large Eb (Willson 3400) more often than I use the F, but there are a couple of guys who use the F more often than Eb.

Cheers,

Cam

Thanks Cam!

I'll have a stab at the US scene just so that others can correct me...

It appears to this casual observer that despite Alan Baer's fine model of rotary F, the majority(?) of US Orchestral pros are leaning toward pistons for both their F & C's? Again, the majority of players seem to have one large-ish C and a big F. I think there has been a recent trend to use big piston Bb's in certain works?
What about the Audition circuits and Postgrad players?

Europe?
Asia?