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A mini tuba (aka Bubbie) or one of the new versions. They weigh less than 10 pounds.

Hi-
Old Mirafone, old Alex, Piggy, etc.--light weight...
Mark

Ditto about the old Alex.

Many sites give the tuba's weight by the spec's.

For very very long rehearsals I've used my old-style tuba stand as a playing stand which really takes ALL the load off.
I've heard that that the Yamaha Air-lift stands can also be used this way but you'd have to double-check this. If this is true it does seem logical to go this route.

Good luck to both of you.
-Pat

(I wonder if the Stealth tuba is still for sale?)

The Lidl and Weril 3/4-sized horns are quite light. The BBb Lidl is particularly nice.

The lightest BBb I've seen is the Amati ABB 223 at around 12 pounds. They actually play pretty well and are quite inexpensive.

Probably easy to move it on to a young beginner when he's done with it too.

jonesmj wrote:Hi-
Old Mirafone, old Alex, Piggy, etc.--light weight...
Mark

Old Mirafone [1972] is 15lbs.+------my back knows!

"Euphoniums"

My Weril 3/4 CC tuba is thick brass and weighs 14 lbs.

Ace

I've never put my Sonora on a scale, but the B&S stencils (especially older handmade models) seem to be fairly light compared to other 4/4 tubas.

I recently sold my Lyons "Monarch" 3/4 BBb that was a very small 3/4 horn. I sold it to a friend of mine who has a large rental fleet of horns for students, and he needed tubas. It is perfect for a student as it is very small, and plays very well for it's size. It in no way will produce the presence of a larger horn, but it was a good compromise. One of my fellow tuba players in our brass band is getting up in years and is at the point that he is having a hard time holding his Yamaha BBb 321. (he hit me with it at the last concert, not mad, but did give my Meinl a ding. ) I would like to find a small horn for him, that still can produce some reasonable sound. He recently tried a Caravel, that was a school horn cast off, but it really was not suitable. He has a clunker Yamaha/Holton POS that he can carry, but it sounds terrible. Unfortunately he plays it at almost every rehearsal and even some concerts.

Steve

There is a YBB-103 on ebay right now. They are light and have good sound for a small horn.

Chuck Dallenbach of the Canadian Brass has a tuba with a composite bell. You may want to contact him...

Many of the early to mid 20th century "handmade" thin wall rotary European tubas - such as Cerveny, Alexander, and many other smaller names - are extremely lightweight. With the original rotary valves and plumbing, my WWI era Mitsching that is roughly the size of a 2165 actually weighed considerably less than a 3/4 Conn. Conversely, many of the older American and British tubas were quite heavy.
If you can see the "triangle" in the bell or see seams on the bows, that is a good sign of handmade.

Chuck Daellenbach's Getzen CB-50 CC tuba was re-fitted with a carbon-fiber bell, but that may not make as much difference as the weight of the branch tubing, or a 5th valve. A production Getzen G-50 weighs about 23 lbs.

The lightest-weight instrument I've encountered in a while is a "Meister Gerhard Schneider" 4-rotor CC that I just finished. This instrument is a 4/4 CC tuba with a .740" bore, 16.5" bell, will hold it's own in a concert band, and tips the scales at 15 lbs. or slightly less. One player looked at it and said it looked to be a prehistoric PT-3. Since it was made in the DDR (former East Germany), that means Markneukirchen, so it probably is a prehistoric, 4-rotor B&S. If interested, just send a PM.

The Tiger, at 11lbs, might be an alternative.

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http://www.rheinsoundmusic.com/products ... d=1&sid=61" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

http://jhmasterwork.en.alibaba.com/prod ... _tuba.html" target="_blank

Is there a way to get the Glaesel fiberglass BBb in this country?

there's those mysterious bands holding the valve section again. Hmmm. I wonder which came first?

J.c. Sherman wrote:Is there a way to get the Glaesel fiberglass BBb in this country?

There was a light blue one offered for over a year in the for sale section.
It intrigued me at the time and there was one on eBay in Bavarian blue and white diamonds that I did not win.
Internet searches at the time suggested that the factory was no longer making instruments

Wessex is likely to have the solution soon. I will announce, once I have working prototype

Found the for sale thread it's a DEG Wilson
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