memo: agree on this to save tons of discussion...

[Chadtuba]

Tubas pretty much suck. It is sad that we come here for free tuba therapy and counseling. But our addiction to these horrible beasts is real and somewhat tragic.

My name is Wade, and I have been a tubaholic for 38 years.

Hi Wade!

[bort]

...better than average...

Those are called "Wobegon Tubas," which are ALL above average.

[iiipopes]

Not before I've had my say...there, I've said it.

[MartyNeilan]

It really is kind of crazy, when you think about it -
How many other instrumentalists would spend five figures on an instrument that is inherently out of tune? After all these years of engineering, the pitch on many new professional tubas is still at a standard far below our "cousins" in the other sections. This is not acceptable.

[iiipopes]

I agree completely. It is a result of wanting to dig deeper and deeper into the basement of near-pedal and pedal tones, and trading off tone and openness of blow.

I say "used to own," because I sold it to a friend who will loan it back to me whenever I desire to play it, but the best in tune tuba or souzy I have ever played was the Besson 3-valve comp I used to own. Just like F bass tuba players talk about the magic "dent," it had a ding in the knuckle between the 1st and 2nd valve primary ports, and it was absolutely in tune; confirmed with a tuner; confirmed with others who had the four- and five-figure tubas, and ironically, would sound "out of tune" in a section of other conventional tubas because the other tubas were uniformly out of tune in the same registers, being mostly rotary instruments. Better yet, with all the comp tubing, Low E nat and B nat are only a minor lipping, not the slide-kicking or hard-lipping down every other BBb tuba needs for these two notes.

The trade off? Low E nat 1+2+3 is the limit of the low range, because with all the extra tubing and the secondary valve ports, nodes and anti-nodes just don't cooperate for the privilege tones like they do on other tubas or on a good souzy. But think about it: I play mostly concert band literature. Yes, I've had one piece that dared to write a low Eb, and another which dared to write a low D, and in all the thousands of concert, march, novelty, and other pieces I have played, and the way the parts were written, they actually sounded better up an octave, I have never missed the lowest notes except for the fun of dropping an octave for the final cadence of the piece.

Damn. I may just have to go see if he will sell it back to me....

[windshieldbug]

This website lacks civility !!!

That should do it. Now it is no longer lacking.

[iiipopes]

- Any tubas that we personally own (in particular, those that we are offering for sale) play PERFECTLY IN TUNE.
- Any tubas that we are considering purchasing from others play BADLY OUT OF TUNE.

Ergo, propter hoc tuba non clangis.

[k001k47]

I kindly disagree.

[TexTuba]

I agree.