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The plastic tubas with metallic finishes are listed at 25 lbs which is more than some other 4/4 brass tubas. IIs that accurate? My 4/4 BBb is listed at 21 lbs. Although the colored models are much lighter if the metallic is not lighter than a brass tuba what is the point?

At a guess, you may be referring to the "Cool Wind" model CTU-200. A web search for that pulls out the Amazon info on it, which indeed says "Item weight 24.9 pounds" ... and then, "Shipping Weight 24.9 pounds". The real item weight is evidently about half that, but ... this tuba comes from China, and like the rest of the stuff that floats over here on giant cargo rafts, it's sold by an array of puffed up dime stores that take no interest in the details, so you won't know anything for sure until you or someone you know gets ahold of one. It's very likely that the metallic version differs in any significant way, other than being shinier, and will turn out to be the same 12 lbs.

Donn:

That does make sense.

Anybody out there own a metallic Cool Wind that can weigh in on this?

Don't own one but heard one performed on. The valve clicking was louder than the tuba and it was being played by a pro.

There's naturally going to be a range of possible outcomes, but I think it's possible for these things to turn out about as well as their brass equivalents. Someone did a youtube video demo, and it sounded OK - I'd play that [specific indivdual] tuba.

Donn wrote:There's naturally going to be a range of possible outcomes, but I think it's possible for these things to turn out about as well as their brass equivalents. Someone did a youtube video demo, and it sounded OK - I'd play that [specific indivdual] tuba.

Art Hovey plays one of those plastic tubas, and he sounds fine on it. But he says he's had to revise and rebuild the valve mechanisms, which I don't find surprising.

I have a Martin tuba from back in the 60's made of "fiber-reinforced composite" (meaning: Fiberglass with typical polyester resin--plastic--binder), but the valve section Martin used is brass and taken from their smaller-bore sousaphone. My pinky finger keeps swinging through air hunting for the fourth valve. The thing is falling apart and I need to significantly reconstruct it, but there's absolutely nothing about the fiberglass outer branches that keep it from being a very nice little horn. Art has never forgiven me for buying that Martin at an Army conference after complaining about its flat fifth partial (which is indeed flat--as the third-valve combinations are sharp--hence a main-slide tuning stick). The playing characteristics of that Martin are not profoundly dissimilar from the Eastman I just bought, except that the Eastman has better intonation.

Given how different plastic is from metal, and how much the plastic models sound like proper tubas, the comparatively microscopic differences between different brass alloys and coatings must be subtle indeed.

Sidebar: The valve section on my new Eastman EBB534 looks to be a perfect match for that plastic Martin, by the way. That Martin is my old-man's tuba, should I still be able to play when I'm too frail to carry what I'm playing now. I'm not sure it's going to work out that way--I'm about as fit now as I was in college (40+ years ago), but for my dodgy piriformis muscle. Essential tremor may get me before I have a chance to become too weak to hoist the Hirsbrunner or Holton.

With a metallic coating (I'm imagining the chrome bits from the car scale model kits of my youth), it ought to look interesting from a distance of 50-100 feet. I can think of many use cases for an instrument like that. The Martin scratches that itch for me, though it is certainly not as light as the instrument Art owns.

Rick "who, to make one of these more durable, might be looking for a trashed rotary tuba with salvageable valves" Denney

Eupho, I think you have a potential fallback plan here, if you buy one of these and find it doesn't suit you.

That reflective surface might weigh a little. The Chinese send us stuff like that ... for example, I have a sink strainer / stopper assembly with a chromed plastic center post. A thin metal coating like that could weight a couple pounds, just guessing.

I suspect that the 25-pound shipping weight that you read about includes the double corrugated cartons that those tubas are shipped in.
The metallic finish can't possibly add a significant amount of weight to the tuba, but I do have doubts about how long it will last if the tuba is used frequently. (Of course those tubas are not built to last.) I have been able to keep mine going for a few years only because I am moderately handy with tools and I am very careful with tubas. I have also been able to make the valves work almost quietly; it can be done.

Thanks for all of the very helpful responses.