The World’s Smallest Tuba

[roughrider]

Look guys. Admittly I haven’t spent much time playing this horn, as I said in the video. I’ve owned many fine F tubas over the years, and the bottom line is that this travel tuba just can’t compare to a full-sized instrument. The reason I haven’t played this tuba very much over the years is that I just don’t like it. I was trying to be open about the horn, while also maintaining some amount of tongue and cheek humor.

YouTube is a tough place to be. Am I a serious tuba reviewer? Not really. People like Chris Olka are much more thourough and qualified to do a serious review on any tuba. My approach is more Marx Brothers, Rodney Dangerfield, and Frank Zappa than Yo Yo Ma, Itzak Pearlman, and Arnold Jacobs. Please take this review with a grain of salt, and enough pepper to sneeze your brains out.

I checked the Mack Brass website before I produced the video, and didn’t see this horn for sale anymore. I’m not trying to hurt the sales of this horn; just give an honest opinion as a tuba-clown on YouTube. I meant no offense to Tom, or any of the manufacturers releasing practice tubas. They are what they are. Maybe I should have added a section about that, but for whatever the reason the final edit is what it is.

I can’t always talk about how good or great a tuba is. In my opinion, this one just isn’t.

Please dont take me too seriously. I’m just a fat man on YouTube who talks about tubas once in a while...

I enjoy your reviews, Dylan. A sense of humour is sadly needed more and more these days.

[Wyvern]

The tuba Dylan reviewed is based on a Jestaedt design and is nothing like the Melton Trolly tuba. Wessex did sell this model in our early days, but have long since replaced with an exclusive Wessex version with larger bore, 5 valves and far better playing, our TF135 Bubbie 5 - https://wessex-tubas.com/collections/tu ... ie-5-tf135. This is really intended as practice travel tuba, although the CC and BBb tornister tubas (https://wessex-tubas.com/products/bbb-t ... dget-tb160) are based on tubas used by the Austro-Hungarian army in the early 20th century and these can be used for public performances as shown in this period picture. I believe a few Jazz players successfully use with mic and amplification. The tone is good if not overblown.

[Dylan King]

I'm encouraged by all of this talk regarding this video. When my wife (who thinks that tubas, and frankly all music is boring) said that she liked the video and thought that is was funny, I was filled with a sense of contentment. Reading the comments makes me want to do more, despite my sometimes hectic schedule as a filmmaker outside of the YouTube space.

That being said, it would probably be fun to do a comparison video with all (or at least a few more) of these travel tubas. If you makers are interested in such a thing, let me know. I might consider clowning my way through a tiny-tuba shootout.

I will be happy to send the instruments back at the end, and promise NOT to throw any of them out the window.

Dylan

[opus37]

Being one of the few people who have owned both versions of the Wessex Bubbie, I can say the first version, which is the same as the Mack Brass horn, was very stuffy and hard to play. I upgraded to the Bubbie 5. It is fun to play. It does take a bit of work to get the best tone, but that work has helped me with my Miraphone tone, a lot. I use the Bubbie 5 mostly for practice, but have played it in community band and quintet. It is not as pretty a sound as the miraphone, but it does work. I play mine as an Eb. The upper range is clearer, but the lower does come through fine too. In my opinion, the biggest impediment to playing in concert is volume. I guess that is why some jazz players amplify their horns. For Salvation Army standing gigs, this is ideal choice.