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Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 3:13 pm
by Dylan King
What really sticks out in this photo is the mouthpiece. Nice!

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:02 pm
by bisontuba
Man's horn......

Mark

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:15 pm
by Cameron Gates
Joe, is that thing hafazzed useable? Can one find the partials and produce anything of value?

I have always wanted to try one of the monsters we have all seen pictures of. Where was this one?

Also, I assume Allied has replacement parts, right?

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:37 pm
by Rick Denney
And all this time I thought Mike had class. But he'll let just anybody come over.

Rick "Hi, Mike!" Denney

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:40 pm
by Rick Denney
Cameron Gates wrote:Joe, is that thing hafazzed useable? Can one find the partials and produce anything of value?

I have always wanted to try one of the monsters we have all seen pictures of. Where was this one?
It wasn't for me--I could not make recognizable notes on it, and certainly not with any semblance of tone. But I'm sure Joe was able to put a better signal into it.

Rick "thinking Joe too a side trip about 90 miles north of San Antonio, if that gives you a hint beyond my previous post" Denney

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:06 pm
by MartyNeilan
That's the posture I see most trombone players using...

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:01 pm
by imperialbari
Image

I note bloke’s personal bookmarks on top of this screenshot.

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:18 pm
by imperialbari
And he even broke the Bell curve.

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:55 pm
by mbell
I thought Bloke got a very good sound out of that big 'ol horn. Maybe this would make a good ad campaign:

"You can play any horn with a Sellmansberger mouthpiece!"

mike (but not that one)

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:35 pm
by imperialbari
schlepporello wrote:
bloke wrote:Here's l'il bloke playing a CCC tuba.

Image

bloke "the Penderecki Capriccio..." :|
Pam says I can't have one. :cry:
Because it isn’t a Pam American model?

K

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:27 pm
by hup_d_dup
Can you tell us something about this tuba? It has a striking appearance (quite apart from its size), and appears to be expertly fabricated ... at least to my eye.

Hup.

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 3:35 pm
by Rick Denney
hup_d_dup wrote:Can you tell us something about this tuba? It has a striking appearance (quite apart from its size), and appears to be expertly fabricated ... at least to my eye.

Hup.
It is the Gerard Hoffnung tuba:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/h ... /biog6.htm

Image

It was made by Paxman. It's the same tuba, but a bell attachment point was added (maybe Mike knows when) to make it possible to move it through doorways.

Rick "a centerpiece for quite a collection, to be sure" Denney

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:25 pm
by hup_d_dup
Thanks. This is all totally new to me (I haven't been a tuba player for very long).

Hup_

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:46 pm
by tbn.al
What no false tones? :wink: :wink: :wink:

beat ya to it , Bob

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 5:03 pm
by imperialbari
bloke wrote:I was disappointed that it was only outfitted with three valves - limiting the low range of the instrument...

:roll:
But then it has this preset octave valve.

Klaus

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:24 am
by k001k47
Definitely something I'd want (assuming I'd ever play it) to haul in to play those huge (rare) low brass orchestral excerpts.

EDIT: or Ride of the Vakyries

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:01 am
by Rick Denney
k001k47 wrote:EDIT: or Ride of the Vakyries
Yes, then the 32nd notes, instead of being too long as they are normally played, can be nonexistent.

Rick "gone by the time the sound wave gets back from the bell" Denney

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:42 am
by k001k47
It must be the tuba. has to be the tuba

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:59 pm
by Steve Marcus
Hoffnung.jpg
The piece that was written specifically with this subcontrabass tuba in the instrumentation was "Variations on Annie Laurie." In the 1956 live performance recording, Gerard Hoffnung himself played occasional low notes on this horn throughout the piece, and then played the full "Annie Laurie" melody in the key of C at the end.

That melody is still very playable on that 3-valve tuba at Mike's; I just had to take more breaths than good phrasing would normally dictate. The first note of the melody is the lowest CCC on the piano; the high note is an octave above that. Since the open partials in that octave are CCC, GG, and CC, (one octave below a standard CC tuba), no privileged notes were necessary.

As a "grand finale" for my wife, I played "Edelweiss" in the first key in which that song was ever publicly performed (Theodore Bikel): F Major. So the melody began on the lowest AAA of the piano. Yes, you can play these pedal tones on a standard CC tuba. But they really sounded...unique on the subcontrabass tuba. Ummm, how romantic.

Sorry, no Ride on that beast.

Thanks, Mike, for a truly one-of-a-kind experience.

Re: l'il bloke

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:29 pm
by k001k47
Very cool story. Thanks for sharing