TubeNet

I think the engraving on my B&S GR 51, (PT 605), is very attractive and the horn plays great.

Rick

The Alexander kranz engraving is pretty cool, you know.

I also love the NY Skyline engraving on the MW 2000.

The engraving on the Neptune is also pretty slick, and they play well. I liked mine a lot, and it had bling for days.

B&S is pretty okay looking.

Some MW models have fancier engraving as well. I think Kanstul has some nice ones as well, but I don't know how well they play (I.e., if they were amazing, wouldn't we see more of them)?

That said, my current horn is exceptional, and has a boring *** triangle. Same with Miraphone... I've never met a bad one, but boring *** triangle engraving. (Well, the Willson engraving is a little cooler when you think of the triangle as a mountain... Flums, Switzerland is in the middle of the Alps, after all!).

Walter Nirschl York - Bell by Zigmant Kanstul
viewtopic.php?t=58176

A pity that such a beautiful horn ever had anything to do with the Red Sox.

http://www.artisticengraving.com" target="_blank" target="_blank

You can pretty much get what you want.

I see this has already been posted.

bort wrote: The engraving on the Neptune is also pretty slick, and they play well. I liked mine a lot, and it had bling for days.

Some MW models have fancier engraving as well.

I agree about the Neptune. Yeah, the "new-style" Bell-model M-W CC comes to mind. Nice engraving on the detachable bell and rotor paddles. Similar to the Neptune in that regard. Plays/sounds as good as it looks, imo.

Got a photo? I never knew the late model Bell models were like that!

The Kanstul tuba etchings are quite beautiful.

The Wyvern Dragon on the gold brass Wessex tuba bells is very well done!

Just get a custom engraving on a boring (but exceptional) tuba.

bloke wrote:Few have played it, but I can assure you that the tuning is quite good.

I think that goes to the head of the helicon class!!

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: that thing is GORGEOUS!

bort wrote:Got a photo? I never knew the late model Bell models were like that!

I don't have a photo, but I've played one -- about 15+ years ago at a WWBW booth. It was a brand-new "Bell model" M-W CC with a detachable bell. There was nice fancy engraving on the bell, and the rotor paddles had that deep-etched 'flower' design, much like the rotor paddles on the Neptune. That, combined with the already-attractive-geometry of the horn and it's nickel-silver trimming make it a very beautiful tuba I remember that tuba playing very well and being quite heavy for it's size. I also have a M-W catalog from about that same time (abt 15 years ago) that has that tuba pictured (model 37, "Bell model") with its description.

Nice looking helicon, bloke

Thanks for the info about the Bell model.

The MW Titan on eBay right now also looks amazing. No clue how it plays...

bloke wrote:Does the "Titan" have the same bugle as the Mel Culberton "Apollo" rotary F tuba, or the same bugle as the 45SL-P ?

I would be more interested in trying out more piston F tubas were some of them...
- graduated bore (starting out at something LESS THAN 7/10"), and
- 6 valves (ref: the one that bort mentioned in the previous post)

The best I can tell, it's just a form of the 45-SLP. I'm not sure how similar it is to the Vulcano F tuba (the Apollo's piston-valved sibling), but it really seems a lot like the 45-SLP. Why aren't there more 4P + 2R F tubas?