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This model of tuba in no way shape or form suits my tastes of what I look for in a tuba. Wrong sound, wrong intonation, wrong response.

If you gave me one to play I would sell it and buy something else.

The sort of player that gravitates to this style of tuba tend to value a big warm sound and easy low register over intonation and clarity. My musical values favor a horn that responds evenly across the extremes, is capable of extreme clarity, and minimizes the amount of gray matter I must devote to intonation.

BUT!!!!! Many people love it and sound great on it despite my misgivings.

My advice: Any and all opinions you receive here will be completely useless to you. Opinions say far more about the person giving them than it does about the object being commented upon. The only time opinions are useful is if you know the playing and musical values of the person giving it AND have a working understanding of what your values are. Odds are extremely low that you are in a position to get much of value from the answers you receive in this thread. Once you have a strong sense of what you value in a horn the opinions posted here will no longer have any meaning for you. In the mean time, buy what your teacher(presumably you want to emulate their playing so that's a good starting point) tells you to buy and learn to sound amazing on it.

The instrument you are asking about is the 995 tuba from the new and improved Besson company. I don't know that many people have played anything from the new and improved Besson company.

The instrument you are asking about was sold previously by the old Besson company as a model 995. That instrument was the same instrument sold by Walter Nirschl as his 4/4 CC with a different leadpipe. It seems to me that they were two-piece leadpipes but that just memory.

Neverthemess, the old 995 was an excellent buy for the price (+$2k cheaper than otherwise available). Every horn is different but I played half a dozen of these that were quite good. I didn't play any that I thought were bad.

Someone (you) may have a sound in mind that is different from the semi-American sounding Besson/Nirschl but these horns play well. Play before you buy .

If you are majoring in music, you should consult your teacher before even considering the purchase of a tuba.


I would be interested in knowing if old Besson's 995 was assembled in England. Anybody know?

I would guess that the new and improved Besson's are assembled in Germany, anybody know if Nirschl is sending them completed instruments?

The new ones are being made in Germany, as I understand it.

The older ones that have all the "problems" were made in England. I currently own one an it's great, but there have been some modifications to it.

I really enjoy mine, but the new ones (the 995-2) play better IMO. It's also heaiver, which darkens the sound, again IMO.

Just my 2 cents..

Also, keep in mind that most tubas have their own sets of "problems"

Now, making it 4 cents...

Hi!
I tried one several years ago, before the "New..." Bessons came to be. It was warm and LOUD, but could sustain a pianissimo for days...
Not anywhere near as nimble as a 188, but that's an oranges to tangerines comparison. I only spent 30 minutes on the axe 2 separate times, but intonation was good, and the valves smooth. Having said that, It just wasn't a Tuba I would choose for Quintet work at all if I were going to have just one all around axe...Also, the retail price seemed to drop quite a bit in the year or so following my first awareness of the model. I imagine you would lose a bit even on a used one compared to a Miraphone or MW...

Al

The newer ones are made in markneukirchen by JAMusik at the same factory that makes B&S. The quality of the workmanship is fantastic. I am a euphonium player, not a tubist, so I can't comment on this particular model, but when they started making the new ones post-reorg they made new tooling for everything and made a lot of design tweaks. I feel the newer euphoniums are A LOT better!

Old ones would have been between 2003 and 2005. At that time, Besson was assembling instruments at their new Watford factory using parts made by keilwerth/schreiber in Germany. Some of their instruments were completely made in Germany. I'm not sure which category the 995 falls into, especially since it wasn't an in-house design but rather acquired from nirschl. Besson started up "making" instruments again under Buffet Crampon in 2007 (high brass at courtois, low brass at jamusik, student instruments in india) but I don't think they got started on the 995 again for at least a year.

995-2 means silver plated, NOT necessarily that it's the new model.

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One of the best examples of the 995 is sitting at Dillons in the Used section.

I took it on a couple of gigs when I borrowed it from the owner, and got many compliments.
I only passed it over for my Donnatelli Conn CC tuba, which I bought for 1/2 the price.

Do yourself a favor and grab that great horn before someone else does! And save some cash over a new one, too!

My two cents,
Frank Ortega

Frank Ortega wrote:One of the best examples of the 995 is sitting at Dillons in the Used section.

I took it on a couple of gigs when I borrowed it from the owner, and got many compliments.
I only passed it over for my Donnatelli Conn CC tuba, which I bought for 1/2 the price.

Do yourself a favor and grab that great horn before someone else does! And save some cash over a new one, too!

My two cents,
Frank Ortega

Now i got to save the $$$ to go to NJ!!!!!!!!!!

jmg71196 wrote:... He is one of those guys that is an orchestral player and bought a Yorkbrunner at a young age, and has an entirely gold plated B&S F tuba for his other works. ...

Let me guess: you're in Georgia.

Frank Ortega wrote:One of the best examples of the 995 is sitting at Dillons in the Used section.

I took it on a couple of gigs when I borrowed it from the owner, and got many compliments.
I only passed it over for my Donnatelli Conn CC tuba, which I bought for 1/2 the price.

Do yourself a favor and grab that great horn before someone else does! And save some cash over a new one, too!

My two cents,
Frank Ortega

I've tried that one too. It's a real player, but *for me* it was very uncomfortable to hold and I didn't like how the 5th valve felt.

Even beyond sound, this is important stuff to learn about your prospective tuba. If it sounds great but is impossible to hold, that'll be real annoying.

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