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Mike-

As I recall you are shopping for a tuba...

My advice (after reading this thread) is that if you're planning to order whatever tuba appears to have the largest following, don't. Try everything with a open mind and pick what works the best for you...be it a Jupiter or a Hirsbrunner. Draw your own conclusions on what plays well, how well it's made, and how appropriate the price is.

As the first poster mentioned, if I'm answering for a popularity contest, I'd rather not, and I'd like to help you find a horn, but this wouldn't be doing that. I have 2 great horns and they were both made in the VMI factory. One is a VMI and one is a B&SPT20P. Both are CC's, one is set up "german style" the other "american style". I have a king sousaphone from the 1930's that sounds beyond incredible, but I wouldn't vote for a king made today except the 2341. I like mirafones a lot also, I used to play a 186 BBb bell front, and it was great, if I had been able to get an upright bell for it, it might be my tuba today. I really like (60's-70's)Cervanys, lots of people on this board don't. I would play a garbage can with a hole drilled for a mouthpiece before any St. Pete I've ever tried, but some people on this board like them. I don't think you'll find any well known pro's with only one brand of tuba, unless they have only one tuba. Players affiliated to some extent with a company will still have other horns in their arsenal, and often will have their picture taken with something and then play something else. Consider, yamaha artist Roger Bobo, here's a link to his instruments, what's his favorite brand? http://rogerbobo.com/instruments.html I hope this helps in your quest. Peace. Arnold S. Gottlieb

My favorite tuba brand is Henry Distin. Henry Distin was a pioneer in brass instrument design and manufacture from the mid 19th century until his death in 1909. Any Distin tubas that I have owned or played have been easy to play with a great sound. Of course this only counts if they have been restored including a valve job. They also are typically beautiful instruments with elaborately decorative ferrules and braces and extensive bell engraving.

Of course I don't think any of this helps with the real question you may be trying to answer, but it is my answer to the question you asked.

Fortissimosca,
Interesting comment about the horn. I played the most unprestigiest (if that's a word) piggy on a lot of gigs. I tried to make it clear as far as the St. Petes go, I think this and maybe nobody else shares my opinion(we both know that my opinion is shared). I've had personal problems with the retailer which clouds my judgement of the horns, and watching the price nearly triple in a few years has not helped my opinion either. Prestige or not, I (again only me) am concerned with reliability and resale, both of which I don't see in this horn, and secondly, I need to put a "face" with my purchase, which means if I have a problem with a horn I can go back to where I got it, and the retailers will empathize with me and get me back to playing in as little time as possible. I've had great luck in America at Baltimore Brass and at Dillons. When I lived in Germany, Bob Tucci's store was like a second home. I've not purchased anything from Roger Lewis or Tony Clements, however if I need another horn (currently unlikely, as I'm not good enough to play what I have) both of these guys have answered emails in past and have been a lot of help so they would certainly be in line for my buisness. As far as the retailer of the St. Petes, I have experience as a customer in the days when there wasn't an internet to get all this great information, and there might have been other dealers, but they were quite hard to find.
Mike TUba Good luck, if you wnt to play any horn I own and you're in NYC anytime, and this goes for anybody else on the board, feel free to PM me.
Peace. Arnold S. Gottlieb

For me, the Alexander (163). I like the sound, response, workmanship and I have been playing one for so long I am used to it.

Meinl Weston (32) would be my second choice for the same reasons.

This is simply a response to what tuba is my favorite (a topic that I consider fun). Advice should come from your teacher.

Mark

Martin - My name's on the bell!

What do you NEED?

If you're still in high school and don't plan on being a music performance major in college, buy a BBb something - or - other: Miraphone 186, 187, 1291, 191. Or try a VMI 3301. Or a King 2341.

If you're curious to know what the "buzz" is about CC tubas, or if you're going into a music performance major, buy a CC something: Miraphone 186, 188, 1291. Or a Conn 56J. Or a MW 2145, 2155. Or a Rudy Meinl 4345 rotary, or a RM 45. Or: [insert any of a number of other good choices here]

If you're an adult amateur who played BBb in high school, get another BBb. OR, for maximum flexibility (if you have the available funding) buy the Willson 3400 Eb tuba -- nice big sound, easy to play, nice easy upper register.

Just a few thoughts,

tubalawlisa wrote:I want to clarify my above post -- I didn't mean to make it sound like I was implying people were shallow for posting their choice of horns, I meant to say that I didn't want to sound like a hypocrite for suggesting my favorite horns when trying to discourage Mike's reliance on solely the opinions of others. (0:
Sorry, hope no one takes offense! My opinion is worth the same as everyone else's, and I am certainly not trying to belittle.
Happy new year!

Your advice (as was that of one or two other posts as well) is wise and sound. However, I took his post to be a request for some suggestions for "good" options. Therefore, my approach was to provide several ways for him to think about his "problem". "The proof is left to the student", as they used to say at the university -- he'll ultimately have to try several options and make his choice.

Now that you've posted the advice, as well as the explanation of your perspective, AND the disclaimer, why don't you go ahead and mention your personal favorites? The extra data might be helpful, and I certainly won't consider it hypocritical.

As a matter of fact, now that you've told him he needs to figure out the answer for himself, I suspect it's perfectly fine to provide your short list of likely candidates for him to consider whilst on his quest. That's what I was doing, fwiw . . . .

Cheers ,

Meinl-Weston

tubalawlisa wrote: (0:

Interesting signature quote, btw!

Cheers,

I prefer to play a Rudolf Meinl, Hirsbrunner, Alexander, Walter Kroner, Willson, Kurath, Meinl-Weston, Gronitz, Boehm & Meinl, Bohland & Fuchs, Walter Nirschl, Mirafone, B & S, VMI, Sanders, Schertzer, Amati, Graslitz, Lignatone, Bielefelder, Boosey & Hawkes, Besson, Cerveny, Salvation Army, Kalison, St. Petersburg, King, Conn, Martin, Reynolds, Olds, DEG, Buescher, Carl Fischer, Holton, Yamaha, Jupiter, Lyon & Healy, H.N. White, Kanstul, Weril, Selmer, Bundy, Courtois, Cousenon, or some other make of tuba.

Lee Stofer wrote:I prefer to play a Rudolf Meinl, Hirsbrunner, Alexander, Walter Kroner, Willson, Kurath, Meinl-Weston, Gronitz, Boehm & Meinl, Bohland & Fuchs, Walter Nirschl, Mirafone, B & S, VMI, Sanders, Schertzer, Amati, Graslitz, Lignatone, Bielefelder, Boosey & Hawkes, Besson, Cerveny, Salvation Army, Kalison, St. Petersburg, King, Conn, Martin, Reynolds, Olds, DEG, Buescher, Carl Fischer, Holton, Yamaha, Jupiter, Lyon & Healy, H.N. White, Kanstul, Weril, Selmer, Bundy, Courtois, Cousenon, or some other make of tuba.

& American Standard, Diston, Schneider, York, Marzan, & ??

WHAT! no Maestro, Winston, or Ravi Baba?

Lee, is that "Conn" actually "Conn", or "C.G. Conn" or "C.G. Conn Ltd."??

Doc wrote:Actually, I think it's Sel-Le-Conn.

Made in Sel-Le-Conn Valley, no doubt ...

Fortissimosca wrote:ya know what? Mirafone doesnt really have a BAT yet...

Were you to peruse the Clipart forum, you would probably notice this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=1160

(now that's a BAT! )

Doc wrote:...with a Big Assed Price!

Well, yeah, but consider: you're getting basically an Inter-Continental Big-Assed Miraphone ... it ain't gonna be cheap, that's for Jupiter sure!

I certainly dig my Yorkbrunner, but I have become a Yamaha man of late. I recently got a YFB-621 F tuba that is so easy to play. It doesn't have the sound my Rudy F had, but it flies like an eagle and I love it. I also recently got a Doug Yeo YBL-622 bass trombone that has fantastic sound, balance, and a faster slide that any trombone I've tried.

The Yorkbrunner is number one, but I have been thinking recently of selling it and buying five or six Jupiter tubas. I hear these are fantastic horns and I would like to have a tuba in every room of my apartment.

MellowSmokeMan wrote:The Yorkbrunner is number one, but I have been thinking recently of selling it and buying five or six Jupiter tubas. I hear these are fantastic horns and I would like to have a tuba in every room of my apartment.

I seem to remember hearing rumors that one of the astronauts had asked the folks at Jupiter to send their model 2 prototype (aluminum-magnesium alloy & carbon-fiber construction, weighed around 3 pounds) up to the ISS for a bit of microgravity test-playing, but that (somewhere between launch and docking) it had disappeared ... oh, the pain, the pain ...

Mike TUba wrote:Whats your favorite tuba brand?

Yes.

Rick "suggesting that every tuba on the market meets some unique set of requirements" Denney

p.s., One of the requirements you may define is "an instrument that is known to be decent so that it will not hold me back while I get good enough to tell for myself what my own favorite might be". Even that requirement could be met by a wide range of instruments. R "who owns a Holton, York Master, Miraphone, B&S, and Yamaha, and finds they are all favorites for particular situations" D