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Hi

l am a bass trombonist looking to buy an Eb tuba. I already am Using an Eb so 1 dont want to change clef.

I play on a Besson 4 valver but intonation seems difficult. Is this a recurrent problem on Eb? or is this symptomatic for the Besson?

Whats the Eb with the best intonation? Haris the intonation on the Wessex instruments?

Intonation-wise, the best valved instrument of any type I've ever played was a three compensating valve Besson EEb (yeah, I know really Eb) tuba. It was close to perfect. I've played other EEb tubas that were all over the place.

I am a tuba player that doubles on Bass Trombone. So there is a point of reference.

FWIW:

I find most decent Eb's to be point a shoot horns. 4v comp horns seem to be very good, at least all of the ones that I have tried (about 6). Two things I can think of that may be giving you grief, your embouchure or your mouthpiece, lastly possibly the horn. I have never heard of Eb horns that have terrible intonation not like other types of horns.

First check if you have an old British Besson with a small reciever and see if you are using a large shank mouthpiece. That should make you super flat and I found the partials don't line up.

Next find a old standard mouthpiece, nothing super narrow(tempting as a trombone player). I believe people should play a proper mouthpiece for the horn, not a cheater, but that is my opinion. Try a DW 2(L) \, 3(L) 4(L), Bach 18, 24AW(I know people around here hate these), 25. Once you are comfortable then find a mouthpiece that you like most, most of the mouthpieces I listed are easy to find cheap or borrow.

Lastly, practice. Probably the most important. Just play. When I picked up bass trombone in my Wind Band this year my intonation got better every week, because I was putting on 20+ hours of playing a week.

Generally speaking are pistons better than rotary intonation wise?

Idont think the mp is the problem. Heel good on it and it is the proper shank size. JK brand dont know the model.

How do people actually prefer tuning those horns? have to pull 1 and 3 out. 2 is always high.

I think so, yes. Brass Band style.

over here, we are quite rude about the bass trombone, the Eb tuba is everything the bass trombone isn't - musical, subtle, smooth, in tune etc. seriously though, intonation problems have 3 elements, the instrument, the mouthpiece and the player, the most significant being the player. How many times have we seen a player say his instrument is out of tune only for the next guy to play it in tune?
If you play a tuba like you play a bass trombone, you are possibly using too much force (there is more resistance in the tuba than the trombone), and that, I would say, is what is driving your intonation issues.
please not that the rudeness is about bass trombones in general and not any one individual in particular

cozzagiorgi wrote:Haris the intonation on the Wessex instruments?

Having played about 20 Wessex Eb in factory check this last week, I can say very good and consistent, the needle rarely goes more than 10 percent either way. I am not saying that because I sell them, but because it is what I actually experience. It is one of those tubas like the Mahler CC and Luzern BBb which has exceptionally good intonation.

BTW This summer Wessex are to carry out scientific intonation checks on all our main range of tubas (and euphonium), measured not by player, but electronically with machine to get accurate impartial readings. These charts will then be on the Wessex website, so buyers will know exactly the intonation characteristics of each horn.

I have to say that the ONLY consistent intonation issue on my Wessex Eb Besson clone is that the E-natural in the staff (third space) tends to be a bit flat -- independent of mouthpiece -- when using the standard 1+2 fingering. But it's only by a slight degree, and every horn has its idiosyncrasies. Otherwise the horn plays amazingly well in tune without any slide pulling or embouchure gymnastics.