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I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Rudy Meinl factory to choose a 4/4 F tuba, and while I was there I took the opportunity to play some of his new piston tubas.

I think I've identified them correctly....

Back row R-L: 6/4 BBb, 4/4 piston CC (long bell model), 5/4 piston BBb, 4/4 piston BBb, 3/4 rotary BBb, 4345 rotary CC, piston F, (I can't remember the one in the corner) and 4345 piston CC.

Front row: 3/4 CC, 5/4 CC, 3/4 BBb, 4345 rotary BBb?, 4345 rotary CC, 4/4 5V F, 4/4 6V F, 5/4 5V F.

On floor: 5/4 BBb, 6/4 BBb.

http://tinyurl.com/Rudy-Meinl-Showroom" target="_blank (you'll need to enlarge the photo)

Unfortunately I didn't have time to play them all... of course the rotary models are wonderful (I love the Bayreuth BBb!) but the surprise to me was how great the piston models are. The piston 5/4 BBb is wonderfully easy to play, probably because the bore of the piston valve set is slightly smaller than the rotors. I didn't play the 4/4 piston BBb.

The 4345 CC tuba has been further developed and now has excellent intonation and consistent response throughout all registers, and I was interested to see that there is another piston 4/4 CC - a piston valve set in the same body as the 4/4 rotary CC. This was also a very good tuba, but I preferred the shorter bell of the 4345.

The piston F tuba is a lovely instrument! If I didn't already have a good piston F (2250) and I wasn't looking for a classic German rotary F tuba I would have been very tempted by it.

It's shame that the exchange rate means that Rudy's tubas are expensive, they are really wonderful tubas and it's great that he continues to work on improvements using computer technology, while maintaining the tradition of hand-crafted instruments.

Awesome!

Thanks for the post, and the great photo. It made me nostalgic for the House of Tubas. Does anyone import Rudys to the states any more?

Since I live on the west coast, my first thought, on looking at the photo, was I hope they don't have an earthquake.

Thank you for posting this! Was the low range on the 4345P improved as well? Loved the one I had, but it was pretty tight in the 5th valve range.

Yes the 4345 CC has been improved in the low range, it really is an excellent tuba and Rudy is very pleased with the development work that they have done. As I said it is now consistent throughout the range and it isn't tight in the 5th valve.

Cheers,

Cam

Several years ago, the piston valve sets were not braced sturdily enough, for my taste. I felt the braces flexing when playing. Has anything been done about that?

I'm not sure, I didn't notice anything when I picked up the tubas, but I wasn't looking out for that...

Mark wrote:Since I live on the west coast, my first thought, on looking at the photo, was I hope they don't have an earthquake.

Curious I had the exact same thought (having lived through the '89 Loma Prieta) immediately upon enlarging. "And those bells under the scaffolds will get totally crushed!"
I then thought that they could never re-locate to Oklahoma due to the thousands of micro-quakes now happening there every year, because I'm sure that Rudy-Meinl was considering that.

Something primally appealing about a herd of all-lacquer, (almost) all rotor oversize bore horns with horizontal tuning slides.

cambrook wrote:I took the opportunity to play some of his new piston tubas...of course the rotary models are wonderful (I love the Bayreuth BBb!) but the surprise to me was how great the piston models are. The piston 5/4 BBb is wonderfully easy to play, probably because the bore of the piston valve set is slightly smaller than the rotors.

What influenced RM to produce more piston models? Are European orchestras becoming more tolerant of piston instruments than they traditionally appeared to be?

My guess would be to get more sales in the US and China. Same reason I think they make so many CC options.

Did you try the 4/4 CC rotary version?

Not this time, there simply wasn't time. I did play it on my previous visit about 5 years ago and it's also a really good instrument, but I remember preferring the 3/4 CC for a smaller rotary C tuba.

Mmmm. 4345 rotor BBb. Mmmm.