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Colleague says he has "an unlimited budget" for two new tubas. BBb, other than that, the sky's the limit. What's worth his time? He's got two great tubists now, but I want the next students to be able to physically handle a horn.

Ready go

2 Miraphone 186 4v with cases

or

2 King 2341 w/cases

Both excellent school horns as well as two very good BBb tubas for anyone

The ones mentioned above aren't bad, but BigMouth Brass 4/4 BBb gets my vote.

B&S GR51....bucket list!!

Scubatuba wrote:B&S GR51....bucket list!!

GR51 or 55, awesome tubas and pretty reasonably priced. Best price from Custom Music.

It is possible for nice tubas to survive HS. My community band HS has vintage Miraphones with just the lacquer worn off and everything else great.

1. Store them on nice wall mounts. If the tuba is not in your hands, it must be on the wall.
2. They live in the bandroom and go to the auditorium 3-4x per year.
3. Tubaists BYO practice horn. or practice at school one way or another.

Please don't blow your budget on tubas, and then pimp your kids out selling candy bars (vs every other school org) 3 months later. Nobody likes a kid who has a nicer tuba than them and then asks for money.

Ok, I am biased. A couple of Conn 20 or 21 J's would be good. Big sound. Hard to destroy. (hard on the back as well) Baltimore Brass has one for a good price with optional upright bell for a decent price. 20's are easy to find and won't break the bank.

Adams makes a nice 4/4 BBb...

Considering the quality of the sound and ease of play, there are lots of good choices. Bloke also brings his perspective of repairing the instruments if and when they are damaged. Face it, even the most careful kid goofs up on accident and a repair will be needed. His opinion holds a lot of weight with me.

One thing that comes to mind with Chinese piston valve tubas are the fine, poorly machined, valve cap threads. They wouldn't last a month in a school without being cross threaded beyond repair I'd think.