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Hi guys ,newbie here in posting ,but do quite a bit reading ,
i have just bought a JBEB 700L Tuba,and i am quite amazed at the sound out of this instrument,for such little effort can't quite beleive it
anyone here currently playing one ? or played one?
the mouthpiece that came with it was not up to much, but i play on a bach 24aw,or sometimes on a PT 88+
Valves are very light,it has a straight lead pipe,and note production is very easy,i have had it 4 weeks but have only just got round to playing it regularly

straight lead pipe is not a new idea , i had a besson back in the 1980s with a straight lead pipe , John Fletcher style

Kiltie, the lead pipe comes out of the valve section and goes straight around the bell at the same level, like the older 981s. The 982 has a lead pipe that bends upward toward the top of the bell before curving around the side again, giving a higher mouthpiece placement. A few years before the failure of Besson and its sale, they changed the 981 lead pipe to match the 982, and then made some changes in the 982 pipe.

A week or so ago I saw the Southern Territories Salvation Army Band, and they had one of each type lead pipe on their Eb's. Sitting on their bells, there was a good five or six inches between the heights of the mouthpieces from the floor.

Wessex has both types of lead pipes available, the lower one being an option.

I think you guys can ignore Kiltie on this one. He's being a smart-a$$ about the 'straight' leadpipe...
I'm fairly sure enough of us know what a Fletcher style leadpipe looks like on a compensating EEb.

it looks like not many people play one ,or got one,sorry to hear one guy has had bad experience with his ,maybe one off !!

Threads and valves made mine useless.
Money down the drain.

Played decent enough thou.....a few months.

They should fix the alignment and thread issue.
Or maybe not.....?

Curmudgeon wrote:

Tubaleck wrote:it looks like not many people play one ,or got one,sorry to hear one guy has had bad experience with his ,maybe one off !!

A lot more than one person had a bad experience. Plenty of people have bought these. Some are happy. Many have had to do a good bit of work to "get happy."

Shill posts are boring.

Sorry you may find my posting "boring" but it is not a "shill"posting !it is a genuine attempt to hear about personal experiences with this tuba

As my sig indicates, I have a Wessex version of this with the raised lead pipe. I've had it since May and have been playing it heavily in that time. Just returned today from OctubaFest in Wilmington.

These instruments are not flawless. There remain what I regard as pretty minor flaws in the fit and finish. And I agree that there is still some work to be done in terms of the the valve threads. You may encounter some solder joint issues (but you may encounter those on other contemporary instruments as well). Overall, I'd have to say that the major hurdle the Chinese have not yet surmounted is reliable and uniform quality control. I don't think it would really take much to get over that hurdle, but they don't seem to get it. I'd say that the build and finish quality of this horn is not quite as good as that of my Jin Bao compensating euphonium (which theoretically is just a smaller version of it), but it's very close, and better in some respects.

That said, I love the instrument, and the tone quality and intonation seem superb to me. It's pretty much a "set it and forget it" horn, and I can cover either the high tuba parts (which I normally play in band) or the contra-bass parts if I'm the only tuba that shows up or if we need more bottom. Time will tell the tale in terms of long term durability, but I am hopeful. If it degrades in a few years I will be very disappointed. But honestly, at that point I'd seriously consider buying another -- looking closely for improvements in quality control -- because I don't think I could touch the functionality for three or four times the cost. A lot of this is about what you want, what you can afford, and what you require. And perhaps how much minor repair work you may be able to do yourself. But to some degree, that's true of anything.

I'm using the Mead euphonium springs in it (with a couple switched), and the valves are totally silent and function flawlessly. In terms of a mouthpiece, personally I would throw the 24AW as far as I could, and the PT88 I think is way too big for this horn. But that really depends on you. The most common mouthpiece would be a Wick 2L or a 3L. A 3L-ish clone came with it and I didn't like it much at all. I got a 2L and it works very well with it, but for my purposes I prefer the (I'll grant you, somewhat odd) PT-63 mouthpiece I had lying around (it has a rim about identical to a PT-89, but a smaller bowl -- I'm not sure it's available any longer). It slots better and gives me an overall sound that I prefer. However, I'm now thinking of using the 2L for some Wagner .

Must say i have to agree with what you say ,as the first horn i received had some minor imperfections on the laquer finish,and i noticed that the 2nd valve top threads were a little difficult to get screwed back on, i actually sent it back for those reasons,and got another horn delivered,and actually seems to be a better horn altogether,
in what way are the "mead springs" better?

Interesting. The threads on my second valve are a bit wonky as well, but working out well. We need to find the guy responsible for the second valves and have him replaced.

The Mead Springs are supposedly better because (a) they are plastic coated, and (b) the strength of each spring is specifically tuned for the valve it's in. I got them for my euphonium and liked them pretty much, but many people don't because they're quite strong and apparently many euphonium players have weaker fingers than tuba players -- or maybe just complain about it more. So there is a lot of controversy about the Mead springs. A couple of months ago I got some coated Yamaha springs (MUCH cheaper than the Mead ones) and tried them in the euph -- and liked them better. So I tried the Mead ones in the compensating tuba -- and they work great! However, when the time comes to replace them, I think they'll be replaced with Yamaha springs.

Depending on whom you get these Chinese horns from, you may want/need to replace the water key corks (go with Valentino) and the valve corks and felts (I use all synthetic ones). It's a minor expense that SHOULD be part of the original package, but usually is not. The original Chinese corks and felts are generally useless junk.

LOL sorry i gave that impression,i live in the uk and played tuba for just over 40 years now,currently playing in a championship brass band,
i read a lot on this forum because there seems to be a huge intrest in tubas in america, much more than over here,

I play principal tuba for the NASUWT Riverside band, we competed at the National Brass Band finals 2 weeks ago in Royal Albert Hall London
https://soundcloud.com/eric-leckenby/ha ... asuwt-area" target="_blank our performance as north england champions conducted by Ray Farr

Did I mention...
Mine was also the 2nd valve

Curmudgeon wrote: From an ale maker to a teacher's union. Poor folks...

Ha ha ha

Tubaleck wrote:I play principal tuba for the NASUWT Riverside band, we competed at the National Brass Band finals 2 weeks ago in Royal Albert Hall London
https://soundcloud.com/eric-leckenby/ha ... asuwt-area" target="_blank" target="_blank our performance as north england champions conducted by Ray Farr

How did it go, what section? Ray is a nice guy. He lived here in Norway for quite some years.

For sure Ray is a nice guy and a very fine musician ,we competed in the championship section at london, played a piece called Of Distant memories by Edward Gregson
we finished 15 th out of 20 bands which, to us was a pretty good result against some very very stiff opposition,
as for "the ale" well we still get our fair share, we do several over night stay gigs for our sponsor so plenty time to socialise

Curmudgeon wrote:

Tubaleck wrote:I play principal tuba for the NASUWT Riverside band, we competed at the National Brass Band finals 2 weeks ago in Royal Albert Hall London
https://soundcloud.com/eric-leckenby/ha ... asuwt-area our performance as north england champions conducted by Ray Farr

You have to prod them to build a website with history. http://www.4barsrest.com/news/default.asp?bid=647

The NASUWT Riverside Band is a Championship Section brass band within the North East of England. Formerly known as the Newcastle Brown Ale Band.

From an ale maker to a teacher's union. Poor folks...

we actually have 2 bands NASUWT Riverside, which is what we call the senior band, and we have the NASUWT Concert band which we call our junior band who compete in the 3rd section
in the uk,

Curmudgeon wrote:

Tubaleck wrote:I play principal tuba for the NASUWT Riverside band, we competed at the National Brass Band finals 2 weeks ago in Royal Albert Hall London
https://soundcloud.com/eric-leckenby/ha ... asuwt-area our performance as north england champions conducted by Ray Farr

You have to prod them to build a website with history. http://www.4barsrest.com/news/default.asp?bid=647

The NASUWT Riverside Band is a Championship Section brass band within the North East of England. Formerly known as the Newcastle Brown Ale Band.

From an ale maker to a teacher's union. Poor folks...

which area are you in ? which band do you play in ?

Curmudgeon wrote:I have an adult student that just bought and returned one. He brought it over when he got it. One valve was very loose, one very tight, and the other worked. Caps cross threaded very easily. Valve ports didn't line up with valve tubing such that there was no way to do a valve alignment. When one port lined up, another was out. The sound was dull and response was slow. Probably a valve or some other assembly issue, I would think

When I hear of people having so much trouble, I do wonder if there are different standards of tuba being sent to different suppliers. Out of dozens of the Eb tubas Wessex have sold, I have not come across any with valve ports out of alignment. We did have a euphonium with such problem 2 years ago, but nothing since after my wife gave the factory a mouthful of Chinese!

The Eb tubas we receive in my experience play pretty consistently - more so than the output of Besson when they were made in the UK going from feedback from London pros who have tried both. And I would not offer 3 year guarantee, if I was not confident they will stand up well in use.

The first batch of instruments to Michigan when Wessex started up in USA had far more issues than I ever experience coming to UK (poor Andy was quite demoralised), which at the time made me wonder if the factory did not realise they were supplying the same company, and did not make the usual effort.

The valve threads are better than they were, but could still be improved and that was an issue I discussed with production manager when we met in Shanghai a couple weeks ago. Also general quality control and consistency. But they are genuinely working to improve. There was one stay on the Eb tuba of which several sold have come unsoldered. I raised that issue in the Spring and the latest batch of the tuba are now made with much stronger stay with larger soldering point - so hopefully that issue solved.

Neptune wrote: When I hear of people having so much trouble, I do wonder if there are different standards of tuba being sent to different suppliers.

The more I hear about the clones from China, the more I think that you're statement is correct. I've sent you a PM about the cases. I'll follow up with another PM about one other thing.
I'd rather not broadcast here on the message board since I think the issue has been addressed correctly and don't want to hurt the reputation of the company involved.

bloke wrote:Mostly, I'd think that going down the road of "my Jinbao model XXX is significantly different from everyone else's Jinbao model XXX" isn't a particularly productive road.

There will definitely be specification differences to most Wessex horns (and cases), because we do make a number of special specifications (the gold brass higher leadpipe on Eb tuba being a very noticeable example) with the aim to make a better instrument - but I cannot know of quality differences beyond the extra preparation and quality checks we ourselves undertake before sale. I have just given you my observations from experience.