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anyone know anything about this tuba?

http://www.dillonmusic.com/p-14501-mein ... h-s-f.aspx" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thanks!

I used to own the Cerveny version of this horn. Essentially, it is a six valve horn. 1-5 are in your normal tuning, but the sixth valve is called a "Quint Valve". It lowers the horn a perfect fifth, or from F to Bb. From there, you can almost use it like a BBb horn, but you will have to experiment with valve combinations since it is not a quint/compensating valve system.

FWIW, the Cerveny was a fun horn to play. I wouldn't advise using this as an all-around horn, but it would work great for quintet or other chamber settings.

UTSAtuba wrote:I used to own the Cerveny version of this horn. Essentially, it is a six valve horn. 1-5 are in your normal tuning, but the sixth valve is called a "Quint Valve". It lowers the horn a perfect fifth, or from F to Bb. From there, you can almost use it like a BBb horn, but you will have to experiment with valve combinations since it is not a quint/compensating valve system.

FWIW, the Cerveny was a fun horn to play. I wouldn't advise using this as an all-around horn, but it would work great for quintet or other chamber settings.

Are you sure? I can only see five valves on the horn and five circuits of tubing; I don't see one that would be long enough to bring the pitch down a P5 unless it's a dependent valve and obscured by the bulk of the instrument. If I'm not mistaken, the Meinl-Weston 45x series horns have five valves and the 46x series horns have 6 valves.

This model (Hilgers, small) is pretty rare inthe United States. I guess that it was special ordered by someone through Dillons or was purchased in Europe and brought back.

There were three standard Hilgers models, small, medium, and large. The small model played the best of the bunch, in my opinion, but I've only tried one large and one medium to compare against.

They have a smaller/lighter F tuba sound, not completely unlike that of an Alexander.

The Cerveny mentioned above is a COMPLETELY different horn than the small Hilgers, by the way.

Tom wrote:This model (Hilgers, small) is pretty rare inthe United States. I guess that it was special ordered by someone through Dillons or was purchased in Europe and brought back.

There were three standard Hilgers models, small, medium, and large. The small model played the best of the bunch, in my opinion, but I've only tried one large and one medium to compare against.

They have a smaller/lighter F tuba sound, not completely unlike that of an Alexander.

The Cerveny mentioned above is a COMPLETELY different horn than the small Hilgers, by the way.

Did the small / medium / large designations signify different gradients of bore size or just overall chunkiness of the tubing?

arpthark wrote:

Tom wrote:This model (Hilgers, small) is pretty rare inthe United States. I guess that it was special ordered by someone through Dillons or was purchased in Europe and brought back.

There were three standard Hilgers models, small, medium, and large. The small model played the best of the bunch, in my opinion, but I've only tried one large and one medium to compare against.

They have a smaller/lighter F tuba sound, not completely unlike that of an Alexander.

The Cerveny mentioned above is a COMPLETELY different horn than the small Hilgers, by the way.

Did the small / medium / large designations signify different gradients of bore size or just overall chunkiness of the tubing?

I'm not sure about differences in bore size, but my guess would be that they were all the same, but that's just a guess. But, each size was a completely different tuba in size, appearance and in the way they played. The only connection between the three models is that they are all engraved "Hilgers." The differences between each one are very pronounced.

arpthark wrote:

UTSAtuba wrote:I used to own the Cerveny version of this horn. Essentially, it is a six valve horn. 1-5 are in your normal tuning, but the sixth valve is called a "Quint Valve". It lowers the horn a perfect fifth, or from F to Bb. From there, you can almost use it like a BBb horn, but you will have to experiment with valve combinations since it is not a quint/compensating valve system.

FWIW, the Cerveny was a fun horn to play. I wouldn't advise using this as an all-around horn, but it would work great for quintet or other chamber settings.

Are you sure? I can only see five valves on the horn and five circuits of tubing; I don't see one that would be long enough to bring the pitch down a P5 unless it's a dependent valve and obscured by the bulk of the instrument. If I'm not mistaken, the Meinl-Weston 45x series horns have five valves and the 46x series horns have 6 valves.

My mistake. This is not the model I was talking about...but the model I was referring to is the MW 45QHL. The MW 45QHL is an exception of the "5 valve = 45x and 6 valve = 46x series" rule.

Tom wrote:The Cerveny mentioned above is a COMPLETELY different horn than the small Hilgers, by the way.

The model of my horn, Cerveny 654-6, was the basis of the MW 45QHL. At my first post, I had inferred incorrectly that the horn on Dillon's site was the 45QHL hence the comparison. I apologize for the mix-up.