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Badly leaky tubas of any kind.

HB Jay "Columbia" Eb with a large pancake-style bell. It had the loop leadpipe in front of the valve block, and when I borrowed it one time, I noticed all the plating was worn off the main vertical valve slide. It didn't take long to figure out why. Every note needed something. Every one. Even after my tech made sure there were no leaks and the valves were aligned with proper corks, felts, guides and valve buttons, it had the most horrendous scale a person could imagine. It quietly went away.

The worst brass bass I tested was an Amati BBb sousaphone. C in the staf wouldn't speak at all until I aimed for a B natural with the C fingering (1st). Then that note responded.

Klaus

Thein.

Some Chinese F at the TUSAB conference a few years back. I still remember the face of the poor fellow that was showing them while I played Hungarian March.

Anything made in India....

Any tuba I get my stinkin' mitts on is out of tune.

-Conn 20J, and especially if it's low tuning and been cut.
-Probably way more BBb tubas cut to CC then their owners will admit to.

Easy.
(1) a "De Prins" CC in silver. It looked great and was so well crafted that I was compelled to snap a photo. Hideously out of tune, there was no question of a "getting to know it" stage. I asked the shop not to sell it to anyone, not even a desperate school programme, but it went quickly. How mercenary music shops can be.
(2) an unbelievable bad copy of an already bad Dutch band instrument - a three valve BBb tuba in raw brass. It was fabricated by an enterprising Chinese gentleman in Lima, Peru, who made copies of various brass instruments, perhaps for the military bands there. To give credit, I was impressed by his ability to do the fabrication at all. This particular tuba was so out of tune that it might come in handy today for the performance of quarter tone music.

One of these was the most out of tune tuba I have ever played. (And I also gave the Jinbao 600 F a shot once. This CC was worse, though a good tech made it better -- not good, but better -- with some judicious cutting and pasting.) It was my first CC, though, and it got me started on that switch, so that's not the worst thing in the world. I bought it used and sold it for what I had in it, including shipping and cutting and pasting, so from that point of view it was all good.

Specific models....1980s Chinese made in general.

Specific instruments: a late 20 Conn BBb custom, now owned by a collector. One of the better service techs worried on it a long time and pretty much gave up. Rotary valves made it quite unique. Amazingly great sound, but overtones were so far off, valved notes were all but unusable.
And, a c . 1970 Alex CC . Overtones not even close. 3rd valve tubing way too long. Not even close.

Cerveny C tenor tuba

A few really bad alex 163 tubas, the kind you pick up and put right back down. Most are worth the extra effort but there are some that are not even close.

Although some have mentioned the jinbao 600 f tuba, I agree they were bad but at the same time they were workable but not as bad as others. If a tuba is in the ball park then I am not adding them to this list.

Jinbao CC 400 model.

There was a Scherzer cc I played that looked great but must have been made for something other than music.

I currently own a cerveny jumbo helicon in F that can only be played close to I tune when using a bass trombone mpc. Looks really cool though, that is why I bought it.

lastly, the HB2 that was owned by a pro in upstate NY, I owned one myself but it was not as bad. Great sound though.

although there are some really bad tubas I have found that there is nothing that can be played in tune as long as you add triggers and use alternate fingerings. Price determines if they are worth buying and the amount of effort your willing to put in. Me, I am not will to put the effort in these days so I stay away from anything not close to point and shoot.

PMeuph wrote:Anything made in India....

1+

I once bought an India made mini-sousaphone that is only awful.
Butch

PS: I still own this «beauty». If someone is interested in a bad mini-sousi to tinker around, PM me!

mid-60's Sanders (MW) F,

I've never had to put so much damn effort into a horn in my life, I swear its made students cry.

The shiny Jupiter sousaphones at the local high school.

Levaix wrote:The shiny Jupiter sousaphones at the local high school.

Agree.

Back in the 1970s Sam Green offered his backup Sander to me but I turned him down. Had a wonderful classic sound, but I couldn't get that horn to line up for me, no way, no how. Overtone series was nuts. David Freedy bought it instead. I guess he figured out how to make it work, but I think he sold it later. I don't know where it is now. Maybe someone here knows.

mctuba1 wrote:There was a Scherzer cc I played that looked great but must have been made for something other than music.

The one at Baltimore Brass, or another one? I only ask because I have not seen very many Scherzer CC tubas...

The worst one I remember was a brand new, bright silver Besson 995. It actually played really well... except for the C, C#, and D in the staff were all virtually the same note. For me, that tuba was awful.

Not a tuba but I have a 'Tri-Star' (made in India) euphonium (Besson 4 =1 copy) hanging from the ceiling of my shop that is not in tune with ANYTHING! No two partials from any valve combination line up within reason.