Review of Wessex Berg F Tuba
Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 3:57 pm
Hi-
My thoughts on the new Wessex BERG F 5 rotary F tuba. The horn is not a clone ( which I am very happy about!) but seems to be part Firebird, part B&S PT, part B&S Symphonie, part original design, etc. Wessex has really worked on this horn. It has 5 rotary valves with a bore of around 19.5mm--to 21mm. The fifth valve is the smallest, the first and second are a bit bigger, and the third and fourth are the largest. The tuning slide is an "inner/outer" slide--a great feature. All the slides are aligned precisely & move freely, the horn mostly seems well built, (the inside of where the bell meets the bottom bow is perfectly flush), etc. However, it has silicone rotor bumpers ( I hate those on ANY horn), the rotors seem to have dirt/ buffing compound inside them ( need a good cleaning), and the linkage is a tad noisy. The rotors are however, slow--too heavy?. The bell -15.75"-and lead pipe are gold brass--the body is yellow brass. It comes with a supplied hard case that has very good wheels ( but I wish JinBao would follow Yamaha and Jupiter and supply ABS cases) and also a new Gold plated WESSEX F tuba mouthpiece--I am told it is a copy of an old Schmidt mouthpiece that came with old B&S F tuba ( Hats off to Wessex for not just supplying something that looks like a tuba mouthpiece, but something you can actually use!). This horn has intrigued me, and I heard good things about it, but also some intonation issues on the prototype, which I was told have been corrected. I figured worse scenario, I try it and if not good, send it back, get a refund, and lose shipping money. You get a 14 day trial period and a 3 yr. warranty with Wessex.
I received the horn last Wednesday. My initial thoughts when first playing the horn were that the instrument had an incredible quality sound, the pitch was excellent, it slotted great, and it has a fine range. The mouthpiece supplied with the the horn is not bad at all, but just not for me ( I am an original small Conn Helleberg man on F tubas). I had been told that the first valve slide is short--which it is, but I had or have no problems at all using 1st or 1st and 2nd valve combinations.....those play in tune with just a bit of pulling the first slide ( but I did add a 'string' to the 1st valve slide to the brace between the first slide so I don't pull it out by mistake). Maybe a slide stop should be added by the company to keep it from popping out if pulled out too much on future batches. BTW, even the horn when shipped in the hard case in the cardboard box has a 'wedge' which protects the horn and bell in shipping--the wedge can also be used in a gig bag for horn protection....OR...makes a great free, lightweight practice mute too! I kid you not. I like that attention and innovation with detail.
The horn is extremely easy to play in all registers, the gold brass bell ( almost seems like 'Rose' brass to me) adds that warmth but IMHO the horn does not break up or vibrate too much for projection (which, when they do affect projection, makes you work much harder than you should have to) as some all gold brass tubas do...just having the gold brass lead pipe away from the gold brass bell, seem to be a 'win-win'. Gorgeous beautiful warm sound. I had a chance to take it down to the Music Hall here in Buffalo today and played it and others played it while I listened to it. Sounded nice. The low range requires NO adult fingerings. Low C using 4 is dead on and speaks just like the C an octave higher.. fine low range for a rotary F ( excellent 5th valve). The Octaves are also very in tune ( esp. high Bb, B, and C are dead on) and I have yet to see a need for any alternative fingerings for anything--talk about a rarity on a F tuba ( checked often with Korg's WiTune WR-01 Tuner and the great app Tonal Energy Tuner). The high range speaks easily. You can 'cheat' playing the high G# in Bydlo using the smaller bore 5th valve in place of 2&3 if you like. This F is very easy to 'pick up cold' and have a singing high range..it sounds like a 4/4 Bass Tuba --and not a 6/4 Contra Bass (sic) F tuba.
I do wonder if--and I say if--adding a bell garland would make the Berg be better? Maybe that would be an option after some R&D on that subject.
Really, the ONLY issues I see on this horn which I will have addressed by my repairman are the silicon bumpers, some noisy valve linkage, lighter and faster rotors (lighter backplates?), and a need for a rotor cleaning/dirt inside the casings (things that JinBao needs to address on ALL their instruments). However, having said that,they ARE getting better and better in their workmanship.
Outside of the above issues,IMHO, this horn is by far one of the best Rotary F tubas I have played. The price is incredible (refer to the Wessex web site for pricing). If this horn was double in price, it would still be a great deal. This horn can also work easily for brass quintet use...the low range is THAT good!
However, as I have mentioned in the past, an audio or video of the horn will not do it justice. We all play differently and have different concepts in sound and what we want in a F Tuba, so I would URGE people in the U.S. to go to Michigan and see Andy to play the horn, if in Europe go to the U.K. and see Jonathan, or go to the Army Tuba Conference, ITEC next June, any other conferences where Wessex is displaying, etc. and test play the horn yourself!!!!
Mark
My thoughts on the new Wessex BERG F 5 rotary F tuba. The horn is not a clone ( which I am very happy about!) but seems to be part Firebird, part B&S PT, part B&S Symphonie, part original design, etc. Wessex has really worked on this horn. It has 5 rotary valves with a bore of around 19.5mm--to 21mm. The fifth valve is the smallest, the first and second are a bit bigger, and the third and fourth are the largest. The tuning slide is an "inner/outer" slide--a great feature. All the slides are aligned precisely & move freely, the horn mostly seems well built, (the inside of where the bell meets the bottom bow is perfectly flush), etc. However, it has silicone rotor bumpers ( I hate those on ANY horn), the rotors seem to have dirt/ buffing compound inside them ( need a good cleaning), and the linkage is a tad noisy. The rotors are however, slow--too heavy?. The bell -15.75"-and lead pipe are gold brass--the body is yellow brass. It comes with a supplied hard case that has very good wheels ( but I wish JinBao would follow Yamaha and Jupiter and supply ABS cases) and also a new Gold plated WESSEX F tuba mouthpiece--I am told it is a copy of an old Schmidt mouthpiece that came with old B&S F tuba ( Hats off to Wessex for not just supplying something that looks like a tuba mouthpiece, but something you can actually use!). This horn has intrigued me, and I heard good things about it, but also some intonation issues on the prototype, which I was told have been corrected. I figured worse scenario, I try it and if not good, send it back, get a refund, and lose shipping money. You get a 14 day trial period and a 3 yr. warranty with Wessex.
I received the horn last Wednesday. My initial thoughts when first playing the horn were that the instrument had an incredible quality sound, the pitch was excellent, it slotted great, and it has a fine range. The mouthpiece supplied with the the horn is not bad at all, but just not for me ( I am an original small Conn Helleberg man on F tubas). I had been told that the first valve slide is short--which it is, but I had or have no problems at all using 1st or 1st and 2nd valve combinations.....those play in tune with just a bit of pulling the first slide ( but I did add a 'string' to the 1st valve slide to the brace between the first slide so I don't pull it out by mistake). Maybe a slide stop should be added by the company to keep it from popping out if pulled out too much on future batches. BTW, even the horn when shipped in the hard case in the cardboard box has a 'wedge' which protects the horn and bell in shipping--the wedge can also be used in a gig bag for horn protection....OR...makes a great free, lightweight practice mute too! I kid you not. I like that attention and innovation with detail.
The horn is extremely easy to play in all registers, the gold brass bell ( almost seems like 'Rose' brass to me) adds that warmth but IMHO the horn does not break up or vibrate too much for projection (which, when they do affect projection, makes you work much harder than you should have to) as some all gold brass tubas do...just having the gold brass lead pipe away from the gold brass bell, seem to be a 'win-win'. Gorgeous beautiful warm sound. I had a chance to take it down to the Music Hall here in Buffalo today and played it and others played it while I listened to it. Sounded nice. The low range requires NO adult fingerings. Low C using 4 is dead on and speaks just like the C an octave higher.. fine low range for a rotary F ( excellent 5th valve). The Octaves are also very in tune ( esp. high Bb, B, and C are dead on) and I have yet to see a need for any alternative fingerings for anything--talk about a rarity on a F tuba ( checked often with Korg's WiTune WR-01 Tuner and the great app Tonal Energy Tuner). The high range speaks easily. You can 'cheat' playing the high G# in Bydlo using the smaller bore 5th valve in place of 2&3 if you like. This F is very easy to 'pick up cold' and have a singing high range..it sounds like a 4/4 Bass Tuba --and not a 6/4 Contra Bass (sic) F tuba.
I do wonder if--and I say if--adding a bell garland would make the Berg be better? Maybe that would be an option after some R&D on that subject.
Really, the ONLY issues I see on this horn which I will have addressed by my repairman are the silicon bumpers, some noisy valve linkage, lighter and faster rotors (lighter backplates?), and a need for a rotor cleaning/dirt inside the casings (things that JinBao needs to address on ALL their instruments). However, having said that,they ARE getting better and better in their workmanship.
Outside of the above issues,IMHO, this horn is by far one of the best Rotary F tubas I have played. The price is incredible (refer to the Wessex web site for pricing). If this horn was double in price, it would still be a great deal. This horn can also work easily for brass quintet use...the low range is THAT good!
However, as I have mentioned in the past, an audio or video of the horn will not do it justice. We all play differently and have different concepts in sound and what we want in a F Tuba, so I would URGE people in the U.S. to go to Michigan and see Andy to play the horn, if in Europe go to the U.K. and see Jonathan, or go to the Army Tuba Conference, ITEC next June, any other conferences where Wessex is displaying, etc. and test play the horn yourself!!!!
Mark
Yeah, yeah... 