TubaGrandad wrote:
Anyone play the horn care to comment on it??
I thought it a nice tuba, though I'm not an Eb player and have no real frame of reference. It had a little darker sound as I recall than the original 3-valve York Eb that was also in the BB booth, and I thought it a little more stiff and not as easy to play. No comment on intonation--I never checked it. I played a maximum of about 15 notes on the thing, which is why my impression of it is so vague.
Rick "who thought the York 3-valver was more fun to play" Denney
I have a tuba that is fairly similar to this, also from Dave Fedderly- most of it is G50 but with a York monster EEb bell. I love it- lots of color to the sound with a great high range. Even though basically it is pretty small, it can be pushed far enough.
I don't know about how this tuba would compare to mine, but I have talked to Chuck Daellenbach, who helped design the G50 (originally CB50) and he told me that the prototype was basically made from various york parts, with the Monster EEb as the base for the design. So I imagine the tuba at the conference would be basically similar to the G50, because the G50 itself is modeled off of a York. It's very possible I am completely wrong because I haven't seen the tuba in question, but I thought I would share some speculation.
PS: Forgot to mention: the tuba I have is in C. Is this one in Eb?
Getzen G50 w/ York Monster EEb bell
Meinl Weston 2182
PT6P
Eastman School of Music Class of 2008
I played this horn up at Baltimore Brass before the Army conference, and again at the conference. This is an Eb tuba, the valveset was taken from a G50 and the slides cut to Eb tuning. Good gracious, what a sound. Classic York tone, dark and smooth. If I had the cash on hand, this horn wouldn't have made it to the Army conference. I did not sit for any length of time with a tuner, but the few pitch problems I detected weren't deal-breakers. There was a little stuffiness down low, but the thing sounded great.
I tried out a MW Eb tuba as well, another really nice horn, but sort of a generic MW tuba sound. The MW blew evenly across the registers, and seemed to have pretty good pitch as well, but lacked the character that the York had. Don't get me wrong, it's a really nice horn, but I am totally into how this York sounded and played. I'd like to get it side-by-side with a Besson 983, but there wasn't a one to be found at the Army conference.
Since that Getzen valve set was designed to go with that size/shape of body, it's no surprise they match up well. Still, Mr. Rusk did some nice work with this axe. She's a fine seafarin' vessel.
Tom Holtz wrote:I played this horn up at Baltimore Brass before the Army conference, and again at the conference. This is an Eb tuba, the valveset was taken from a G50 and the slides cut to Eb tuning. Good gracious, what a sound. Classic York tone, dark and smooth. If I had the cash on hand, this horn wouldn't have made it to the Army conference. I did not sit for any length of time with a tuner, but the few pitch problems I detected weren't deal-breakers. There was a little stuffiness down low, but the thing sounded great.
I tried out a MW Eb tuba as well, another really nice horn, but sort of a generic MW tuba sound. The MW blew evenly across the registers, and seemed to have pretty good pitch as well, but lacked the character that the York had. Don't get me wrong, it's a really nice horn, but I am totally into how this York sounded and played. I'd like to get it side-by-side with a Besson 983, but there wasn't a one to be found at the Army conference.
Since that Getzen valve set was designed to go with that size/shape of body, it's no surprise they match up well. Still, Mr. Rusk did some nice work with this axe. She's a fine seafarin' vessel.
I tried both of them side by side with my 983, which I had with me at the conference. The York/Getzen played well, but had more of a contrabass tuba sound than the bass tuba sound I want from an Eb. I find my Besson to have a sweeter sound. I think the York would be a great all around horn. If I were to consider only having one tuba, it would be a definite contender. It plays better than the origninal 4 valve York Monster Eb that I owned. The M-W 2141 and rotary 2040 that I tried had a less colorful sound to me than either the York or my Besson. The other Eb that I tried was the Willson 3400, which is really a great playing horn, but it weighs a ton and I still can't find a comfortable playing position for it.
