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Well that goes to show that the most important characteristic to the listener is pitch/intonation.

Wifey and I were watching The Voice the other night... For me, regardless of the flair of the performance, or great tone, when I heard notes off pitch, I immediately put both thumbs down.

I absolutely agree with bloke. - Good easy intonation. The older I get, the less patience I have trying to chase the balance between perfect tone and perfect intonation, because they are mutually incompatible. Give me a horn with superlative intonation, and I will work on the tone.

I only buy tubas that play with good time.

I'm looking for one that plays with good taste.

I look for the ones with all of the wrong notes already blown out of them!! Very hard to find!

One that doesn't sit in a case all the time.

Cdub wrote:One that doesn't sit in a case all the time.

This is gold

bloke wrote:I truly believe that laymen can interpret pitch better than in the past, due to digital recordings and autotune, whereby nearly all recorded music is nearly absolutely in tune.

I think that is true.

I also think the ubiquity of the cheap tuner has helped. Yes, it's widely misused, but it has tended to stabilize the core pitch of ensembles to somewhere near 440. Old timers can remember when any given group might be way above or below that, making it a real challenge to play with. The further away from instrument design you're trying to play, the worse the instrument's idiosyncrasies seem to get.

Doc wrote:Most gigs, studio sessions, etc. only have a few basic requirements:


And possibly the most important:
Play IN TUNE
Play IN TIME

Laugh at the Director's jokes.

timothy42b wrote:

Doc wrote:Most gigs, studio sessions, etc. only have a few basic requirements:


And possibly the most important:
Play IN TUNE
Play IN TIME

Laugh at the Director's jokes.

We had a director in one of our bands that was known for his bad jokes during rehearsals. One day he was late for rehearsal, so we all decided that when he made one of his jokes that night we were all going to sit there and look at him and not react. it drove him nuts!!! I do agree with Bloke's post about pitch most people can't tell the difference between good tone and great tone, but if you play out of tune they can tell.

The most important characteristic that a tuba can (MUST) have is:

You need to be able to hold it comfortably.

If the tuba is unpleasant to hold, nothing else matters. You will eventually play out of time, out of tune, and musicianship will take a back seat to discomfort.

Hup

Who is the genius that invented a lead pipe that backs up all the spit on you instead of going thru the instrument??

After poor intonation, that's the only other thing that really singes me...

If intonation is the top priority then I think most "pro" players would avoid 5/4 and 6/4 tubas; most 4/4 tubas play in tune relatively well. As much as I enjoy playing a larger tuba, it is a welcome break to play a 4/4 tuba who's pitching doesn't require as much of a trombone hand. One day all larger tubas may play as in tune as 4/4 but I don't think that's coming anytime soon. For now I'll live with riding the 3rd slide on the Melton, but hopefully one day I'll play a similar sized horn that requires less slide pulling.

Which F tuba do you play nowadays? Still using your old B&S Symphonie?

As I see it, in the US there is an issue that F tuba is very much a second instrument to the Contrabass in an overwhelming majority of cases (do correct me if I'm wrong). They may have standard orchestral rep down, but in quintet they might well get caught out.
Ibterested to hear if this is how it really is, or more my interpretation!