We could go around in circles all day on what is "professional" and what is "student" when it comes to horns. I mean, generally speaking, most ppl and marketing will think: 3/4 3-valve tubas as 'student'; 4/4 4-valve tubas as 'intermediate'; and 5/4 & 6/4 5-valve tubas as 'professional'. But we all know there are pros who make money on 3-valve BBb sousas and tubas, and plenty of students and amateurs playing large, 5-valve contrabass & bass tubas. Of ALL brass instruments, there is far greater diversity/variation among tubas, as there is no set standards. Tubas come in sizes from the baby tornister (1/4 size?) to the huge 6/4 size; from 3 to 6 valves; and in four standard keys: F, Eb, CC & BBb. And to complicate even more, we have upright bells, recording bells, sousaphones and helicons.ren wrote:There’s a minor point to be made here. These are unless you are a serious bflat tuba aficionado, student horns we are talking about.
But at the end of the day, what determines if a tuba is 'professional' or not is the player behind it...
+1Doc wrote:Players want to use the best equipment they can to make it easier to sound/do their best. Those who are taking auditions (and are of the caliber that will actually be considered), have come to terms with their concept of sound a long time ago, and they usually have found a way to get that necessary equipment for auditions. They may still be open to finding better equipment, but they have graduated into a different category of player. And once they are working, they can more easily afford/justify expensive specialty equipment (BAT, BART, cimbasso, etc).
I would hardly call all of these student horns, but it’s easy to paint them as such since working pros who use BBb tubas can justify and afford the best available. I owned a 1291BBb. It is NOT merely a student instrument, and to insist that it is such is biased absurdity. And the pros that use these other “inferior” instruments might take you to task on BS like that. Unless your definition of a pro is limited to one who holds an orchestra seat, and even those pros aren’t in the habit of making statements like that.