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Today, I had the fortune of playing the best BBb tuba I've ever encountered. It's the very rare Meinl Weston 195PHG Fafner 'Paul Halwax' model. This is a light-weight, handmade variant of the Fafner, with a smaller bell and a 4th valve wrap similar to the 197. This model reminded me of a smaller version of the 197.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AveVMEWR8ofOid5-aU7TAU2xxeFwmA

Quinn the Eskimo (brassandwinds.com) is an online retailer, but happens to be located in the Seattle area, so I was able to spend significant time play testing this instrument today. This tuba came to them in a large shipment from Buffet earlier this year. No idea why one of these made its way to the US, but I'm glad I had a chance to play it.

Here's hoping that one of the major US orchestra players currently using a 195 Fafner for their BBb playing decides to upgrade .

Ben Berlien

Yes. The 4-valve production 195P they had in stock is a very good instrument. If I owned one, it would be the 5-valve version.

The handmade 195PHG (showing 195PH on the bell) is a different beast altogether. I've played a number of 195 Fafner tubas since they came out in 2002 or so (both handmade and production), and none of them were close to that horn.

Sort of unrelated -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83aR2T9AQ7E&t=1125s" target="_blank

Dueling 197s?

There's a similar horn here (scroll down a little bit):

https://tubaforum.de/instrumente/b-tuba/" target="_blank

It looks like the 195PHG has the regular Fafner bell, cut to a smaller diameter.

Well did you buy the instrument?

Scubatuba wrote:Well did you buy the instrument?

He did not.

Doc wrote:

bberlien wrote:It looks like the 195PHG has the regular Fafner bell, cut to a smaller diameter.

Do you think that is something that helps it stand out over a regular Fafner?

16.5 inches in diameter.

Rather than stand out, I think it might help it fall over next to a regular Fafner.

binlove wrote:

Scubatuba wrote:Well did you buy the instrument?

He did not.

Did you?

bort wrote:

binlove wrote:

Scubatuba wrote:Well did you buy the instrument?

He did not.

Did you?

I did.

Amazing! Congrats!

Doc wrote:

binlove wrote:
I did.

What’s the chance of us hearing it in action?

I’m heading on a work trip, but when I get back I’ll put something together. Planning to play it on Mahler 2 in December. Maybe I can get something from that as well.

Hell yeah.

Congrats Doc! This makes it exciting just to play a whole note! Like a lot of models, someone comes along and personalizes it a bit, a lot of people like it, and it becomes an offshoot model. I think MW did that with the 2250 (2250NP, 2250TL) also.

@binlove so how is the honeymoon going with your Meinl Weston 195PHG Fafner 'Paul Halwax'? This is a very interesting tuba.