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Interesting about the leadpipes. Reminds me of the 1292 vs 1291 leadpipe.

Maybe it's something about those monster NYPO players designing tubas/leadpipes that work for THEM... and not for everyone else in the world.

How is the Chinese 'clone' of the M/W Thor? Anyone importing them?

^ I think M-W based the Thor/Touno/GR-51/55 off the old 2155R, but made changes everywhere. I have a (modified) 2155R - I've changed out the leadpipe with a smaller one and floated it off the bell. Greatly improved response. I've also changed out (soldered) one slide leg from the 1st valve slide with one of the 2nd valve slide legs as I felt the first valve circuit was originally too short. I always had the first valve slide out as far as it would go, which was only about 1.5 inches. Now I have at least one inch more pull to get the 1 and 12 combos well in-tune. But yeah, the bottom of the staff G and Gb want to naturally play 15 - 20c flat. It's lippable though. You forgot the other 'funky' pitch - Eb below the staff is sharp I have my 3rd slide out about 2 inches so the Eb isn't terribly sharp and the Ab's not too flat. I use 15 for Eb a lot and it works very well.
Besides those funky pitches, everything else is fine

That tuba has an amazing sound - big, dense, dark, yet compact with bright overtones I still use it for "big" stuff now and then. I even used it for a Christmas quintet gig, using a shallow Yamaha 67B4 mpc.
Fun!

But yeah, the modern 5450 and 2155 are nice tubas.

bisontuba wrote:How is the Chinese 'clone' of the M/W Thor? Anyone importing them?

Is this what you were looking for?
https://www.tubaexchange.com/products/te-450-cc-tuba

I have a vague recollection that someone mentioned playing one over in Europe, but I couldn't find the post when I tried searching for it.