Demo Video's for the Mini Micro Bubba Travel F tuba

[MackBrass]

Received my first Travel tuba on Wednesday. The horn is in silver, valves are smooth and fast, sound is very surprisingly good and the intonation is great. The horn seems to have a fair amount of backpressure but nothing that can't be blown through. The case the horn comes in is about one of the nicest hard cases I have ever seen, all tuba hard cases should be made like this. For a small, tiny horn, the notes seem to have very wide slots making it very easy to play in tune, no alternate fingerings needed.

Although there may never be a situation where you would play this horn on a professional gig, there are some very practical uses for them. First off, using this horn as a workout tool during your regular practice will, if nothing else, make your regular tuba playing stronger. It’s kind of like working out the same muscle groups in the gym using different exercises and attacking the same muscle group from different angles. Next is you can play it anytime day or night and with a mute, no one will be disturbed. As the name of the horn goes, you can travel with it anywhere and leave the big boys behind. Lastly, adding this to a recital will only add another element to the overall program giving the audience something to be amazed at. I am sure with time there will be many more uses found for this model horn as it is just fund to play.

Here are a few quick videos I put together with only about a hour of time spent on the horn. With more time-spent learning the horn and its tendencies, I can see huge potential in it as it can become very addicting to play.

Bydlo; as played by someone with no time to practice SO DON'T LAUGH.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SywmMXYNW_8" target="_blank

Petruschka: yup, i do have a rhythm problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW0PCKkZaAA" target="_blank

Overature to The Corsair: this one hurt me a little
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0-YFnCZJY" target="_blank

Hungarian March: glad I only had to play this once, fist take was good enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ov7dQJWtqg" target="_blank

Bolero: Added this because I like the tune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEnb8kdEmXo" target="_blank

Disclaimer on the above videos is as follows>
Intonation - I cannot be responsible for any intonation issues as I have very little control over what I do, if i miss the slot or if my ears can't hear it, I am sure it is someone else’s fault.

Rhythm - can not be responsible for being late or early on entrances as my internal clock stopped being accurate 10 years ago.

Sound - all I can say is, ooops there it is.

Articulations - forget about them and don't say anything to anyone, it will be our secret.

Musical interpretations - well, I will do my best to lay down and sculpt the notes into something worth listening to, if you like what you hear, I will take donations for my kids college fund.

Enjoy....

[Bob Kolada]

Cool!

[Wyvern]

Well done Tom! You well show what a great sound these little Bubbie tubas can make. And you are right they are quite addictive to play and no doubt strengthen your full size tuba playing.

[sousaphone68]

I got my one this week first impressions are it is a better F tuba than a Eb.
The Eb slide collects water too quickly for any serious use and the Eb and F just below the stave are very stuffy and at the moment dont sound good I am hoping to spend a couple of hours with it tonight to see if I can improve.

When played with the F slide in it is a completely different tuba no
stuffyness and much better tone and dynamic response and control.
The videos on this post and the reality of the tuba leave me no choice but to put the time in and get comfortable with F fingerings.
Great fun to play in Eb in the higher register and well made but much better as an F

[Wyvern]

Regarding the nickname "Bubbie" that Jonathan uses... To exactly what does this refer to in England?

'Bubbie' is not meant to mean anything other than the name for this tuba. It was a name suggested to me by the renowned bassist, Herbie Flowers (which British brass band players will know as the composer of the 'Tuba Smarties' solo). I liked the name, so started using!

I can't say I have found the difference in response playing with Eb slide that 'sousaphone68' mentions, although with the small bore it can collect water quickly. A solution I may install on my own Bubbie is saturn water keys on the Eb slide. That is what I would suggest to anyone who plays it in Eb a lot.

Incidentally, listening to people trying the Bubbie on recent trade stand, it was amazing the difference in sound different players made. With some it sounded dull and stuffy, but others got a glorious tone for the little tuba - far more variable that full-size tuba.

When I get time, I will try posting video/s playing the same piece with both Eb and F slides.

[tubaforce]

Hi!
One client in New York finds his Mini to be especially Mouth piece sensitive, and I concur! Tom is fooling around with the back bore of several MP's, and I hope to have recommendations from clients too! Check the sponsor's page in the coming weeks!
Al

[bisontuba]

Hi-
I used my micro F today along with my 6v F on a brass quintet wedding gig. The 'little guy' worked great, and they are so much fun to use--and they sound super too. Very happy with mine.
Mark

[Lectron]

Tuba pitch:

Tuba sound:

[Wyvern]

Tuba pitch:

Tuba sound:

Anyone who expects a fat tuba tone from something so small is going to be disappointed, but from my experience playing a travel tuba for the last year (first the Melton and now the Huashen), for performance purposes they are good as;

1. Cimbasso substitute (with shallow mouthpiece)
2. Ophicleide/serpent substitute (with deep mouthpiece)
3. Baroque music
4. Covering Bass Trombone part
5. Where light tone desired (e.g. Mahler 1 solo)
6. As novelty in recital

I also know one customer who has used in Jazz.

[Ben]

I have tried the screwbell at Dillions - I can concur about the MP selectivity issue - I only had a blokepiece with me the day I tried it - I found the pitch OK with management, but lots of back pressure. Tom - It sounds very nice in your capable hands, much better than what I could coax out of the thing. I like large bore horns anyway. I'd like the see a (possibly even more cimbasso-like) mini-tuba made with a more standard bore (non-french horn). I kinda like the bell on that mini...

Kudos Tom, you tamed it!

[MackBrass]

Well, I did some more playing and testing on the horn this evening and all I can say is that it is really, really, really addictive.

Now I would like to speak a little about the backpressure on the horn for a moment. The backpressure on the horn was intimidating for the first few moments after playing it for the first time, but I was able to adapt to it and let the horn do the talking. I think the mistake I had, was approaching the horn in the same manor as my full sized tuba, well, that was the wrong way to go. If you take approach with the feeling that your about to play something on a 1/4 scale, then the horn works very well. I must also say that the backpressure does get lighter as you go higher and the horn can take a lot of air without loss of a good controlled sound.

The throat of the bell: I did some comparing after I got the horn but before getting the horn I was expecting that they just used a bell off a trombone. This is not the case, the throat of the bell is much larger than that of a larger bore bass trombone, this gives a warmer sound. The circumference at 12 inches from the end of the bell on the Travel tuba was right at 6 inches where the bass trombone circumference was barely 4.5 inches at the same position.

I can see that with more time this will only get better as it is worth it. If there were any intonation problems with the horn I wouldn't even think about it but this is not the case with this model instrument.

[Lectron]

Hmmmmmmm........

How on earth did that post slip through Firefox add-block

[Lingon]

...Now I would like to speak a little about the backpressure on the horn for a moment.

Great playing as usual Tom!
About the backpressure as you described it, it seems to be approx the same as for a bass trombonist playing a small bore or peashooter trombone. They are clearly different instruments and if taking that in account and handle them correctly it will work out fine. It is only a question of how to approach the instrument. Like with the trombones it may take some experimenting to get a mouthpiece that works optimally with the small tuba.
I am very interested in this peashooter tuba, not as a substitute for a fullgrown F (or Eb) but as a new tool in the box and if used as something different than an ordinary tuba it may well be used on a so called professional gig when appropriate. It may be a fine companion to a section of peashooter trombones, which could be used with good results in some works, for contemporary music etc etc.
So this may be something more than just a travel tuba, it may be an instrument that could interest some of the persons that compose music of today, and could find many uses if we approach it for what it is.
As I understand it the MW travel tuba is something more or less completely different. That is fine, because then we have alternative tools to use.

[Wyvern]

As I understand it the MW travel tuba is something more or less completely different. That is fine, because then we have alternative tools to use.

John, Having played both, I would not say they are completely different, at least in tone. The MW Trolley is larger bore through the valves, but the valves are further down the horn - the leadpipe does a complete circumstance first, while the Bubbie tuba has more normal length leadpipe. Internally I would think the Bubbie more conical, but there is not a great deal in it. So tonally they are different, but not dramatically - so can be used similarly.

I was listening to a pro-player trying one yesterday outdoors (glorious weather here in England at present!) and was surprised with how well it projected for something so small