G Partial on Eastman 632 CC

[IsaacTuba]

I don’t know if this is a common thing with CC tubas or if this only applies to this horn, but both G’s in the staff are horribly flat. Is there any way I can fix this? I can lip it up but I end up cracking the partial when I do it.

And yes I am aware of the high E above the staff, at least there’s an alternate fingering for it.

[Matt Walters]

The open C's and G's should all be within plus or minus 10 cents. Maybe there is something wrong with that particular horn, like 5th rotor out of alignment, water key leak, valve alignment, etc. Or... it is your playing style. i.e. If you got used to an older B&S with the typical 20 cents sharp bottom line G, any naturally in-tune tuba will play that note flat for you. I've seen it in the store all the time. If you push your air too fast like you have to show that horn who is the boss, it will let you play just as out of tune as you wish. There will always be that 2% that can't play a particular tuba in-tune while everyone else can. They will insist it must be a bad tuba because they played their Blatt 2000 in-tune before they got this tuba.

If nothing is mechanically wrong with the tuba, it wasn't the right horn for you, or you need to learn to play it in-tune. If you want to swing by Woodbridge, NJ, I would be glad to look over the tuba to see if there is a mechanical issue.

[Alex Borst]

When I first got my Eastman I had a lot of intonation relearning to do. Depending on the tendencies of your last tuba you may find things difficult. I had the same problem as you have but after some work with the tuner I was fine. I also played a PT-4 with a really sharp G though like Matt suggested. You could also try 1 and 3 with the first slide in. Not ideal I know.Good luck, I hope you get it figured out.

[IsaacTuba]

Perhaps I need to fix my playing then, before I bought my Eastman I was playing on some old beat-up BBb. It’s only been 2 months since I’ve gotten the horn and I’m still having to play BBb for marching band so maybe I just need more time with it.