And the Winner is. . .

[Mark Horne]

Bruckner!

I'd posted earlier about my search for a new horn and the challenges in selecting the best instrument for me. After a second trip to the Horn Guys in La Crescenta I finally came home with the Miraphone 291 Bruckner. First, a hats off to Robert and Anthony who hung with me until closing time to finally decide, and to Steve who facilitated the deal whilst managing the Long Beach store.

For the second visit, I wanted to have the list narrowed down in advance, and I had pretty much talked myself out of the Bruckner. I figured it would come down to the gold brass 188, the 1293, or the Alexander 163. Had I based my decision on just sitting there listening to myself play, it would have been the Alexander. I was happy to discover that there were really no intonation problems with the horn at all - maybe just one note in the higher range that could have used an alternate fingering. I felt like the Alex had impact - like you could knock things over with the sound if you wanted to - it seems like all the horn's energy is concentrated in the lower overtones, which is great when you're sitting next to the bass trombones, and maybe not so great when you're trying to get a solo line with some color to it. I also noticed that this horn is quite sensitive to how you blow into it - it demands a well controlled airstream or your tone and intonation will suffer even more that it would on more forgiving horns.

The 188 in gold brass played very much like the yellow brass 188 except that the brightness was tamed, and the low end was brought into better balance for my tastes. The lowest notes still required more work to get the same volume as the other horns, but I felt that the gold brass could take a lot more input before sound got "edgy" - I think this is the improved dynamic potential that Steve wrote about in describing this horn on their website. Spending time with these two horns leaves little doubt as to why they are so popular.

1293 - ultimately the ergonomics of the front-action pistons took the 1293's off my list, even though I knew that the too-heavy valve springs could have been swapped out. As Roger Lewis has written elsewhere, I felt that the silver plated model played a little brighter than the lacquer.

Bruckner - as I said, I kept trying to find reasons to not like this horn. My earlier impressions were that the Bruckner was constructed more lightly than the other horns. This is not the case - I think it feels lighter because the weight is well balanced. I had also convinced myself that the higher efficiency (good volume with little input) meant that the sound would break up when the horn was pushed. This is also not true. In fact my decision was really made when I asked their tuba specialist to play each of the horns. Standing on other side of the bell gives you quite a differenct perspective. No doubt it's harder to make judgements when you don't have a full sized hall in order to let the sound develop, but the Bruckner was able to deliver plenty of volume, depth and color without a hint of breaking up (in fact none of the horns exhibited any break up, but the 188 did develop quite an edge).

Still there was part of me that wanted to take home the Alex - as much for its functional art value as anything else, but ultimately I needed an instrument that was going to help me do the job at hand - provide a solid foundation for a group that has been underbalanced in the tuba department. Now I have the instrument for it. . . time to practice!

[Wyvern]

Mark, Congratulations - hope the Bruckner gives you many years pleasure!

[Dylan King]

Good choice! It's a fantastic instrument.

[Ben]

Congrats! This is on of the horns on my wish list. I have no room or need. Please keep us updated on how the you settle into the horn!

[tclements]

I LOVE mine. For what I need it for, it's perfect. Would have liked to play a silver one, though....

[bort]

Congrats! These are all tubas I've recently and still consider as options, so its been very interesting to read this!

[Mark Horne]

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the help I received from Roger Lewis during my quest to find the right instrument. In our email correspondence, I found that Roger provided me with thorough and well explained answers that were specifically tailored to my questions and feedback. At no point did I feel like he was trying to sell me a horn - he was just sharing with me his vast knowledge.

Ultimately I decided that I needed to heed the most commonly-given advice here on TubeNet - try before you buy, and that is indeed good advice. But I found that everything Roger described to me was absolutely true when I tried the horns in person. Having spent quite a bit of time at the Horn Guys shop trying horns, I personally felt it would be uncool to order a Bruckner from Woodwind and Brasswind, although I could have saved a ton of money (and I've had excellent experiences ordering from them). Local businesses need our support, and without them it would have cost me a lot more time and money to trial horns 2000 miles away.

That said, with WWBW's current sale price, I can't understand how they can still have Bruckners in stock!