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The new Wessex TB691 Leviathan compensated 6/4 BBb tuba is now almost ready. Wessex will be getting feedback from some top Championship Brass Band BBb Bass players before going into production, but the sound from this tuba is incredible! A ‘game changer’ over any currently available compensated BBb Bass.





Will Druiett play tests the Leviathan

Is this the same bell and bows as your 6/4 piston tubas, but with a different valve block?

Not that it's a bad thing, just curious... because with model names (not numbers), it can be hard to tell. As compared to something like the Willson 3100 FA, 3100 RZ, and 3100 TA, which are all the same tuba except for front-action, rotary, and top-action valves respectively.

bort wrote:Is this the same bell and bows as your 6/4 piston tubas, but with a different valve block?

This Leviathan uses the same bell and bows as the TB692 Grand, but we are also going to make a trial version with the TB693 Prokofiev bell and bows (which are different from the Grand in being hand-hammered and with slightly different profile bell) and get feedback on which brass bands prefer - so which the eventual production tuba will use I can’t say until we have evaluated.

hrender wrote:I apologize if I missed this in earlier conversations, but do you have the 4th valve on the LH trigger? If so, cool feature.

The Tuba has a rotary 4th valve with lever beside 1st valve slide for easy reach getting over the poor ergonomics of most compensated BBb tubas.

Wyvern wrote:

bort wrote:Is this the same bell and bows as your 6/4 piston tubas, but with a different valve block?

This Leviathan uses the same bell and bows as the TB692 Grand, but we are also going to make a trial version with the TB693 Prokofiev bell and bows (which are different from the Grand in being hand-hammered and with slightly different profile bell) and get feedback on which brass bands prefer - so which the eventual production tuba will use I can’t say until we have evaluated.

Is it fair to say the price will be similar to whatever version gets the parts taken from?

Voisi1ev wrote:

Wyvern wrote:

bort wrote:Is this the same bell and bows as your 6/4 piston tubas, but with a different valve block?

This Leviathan uses the same bell and bows as the TB692 Grand, but we are also going to make a trial version with the TB693 Prokofiev bell and bows (which are different from the Grand in being hand-hammered and with slightly different profile bell) and get feedback on which brass bands prefer - so which the eventual production tuba will use I can’t say until we have evaluated.

Is it fair to say the price will be similar to whatever version gets the parts taken from?

That is a fair assumption

If that thing weighs more than 30lbs I cant imagine marching around with it!!

.

Three Valves wrote:If that thing weighs more than 30lbs I cant imagine marching around with it!!

Leviathan is 28 lb in is present form. Would be about 24 lb if we decided to go hand hammered

Great idea using a rotor valve for the 4th valve so it could be placed closer to the bell making the left hand reach easier. I remember Mike Johnson talking about that idea about 20 plus years ago. That should also make the horn balance better. Looking forward to giving that one a try.

Yes it's very similar to what Mike does.....

http://mike-johnson-custom.co.uk/custom ... et="_blank

cambrook wrote:Yes it's very similar to what Mike does.....

http://mike-johnson-custom.co.uk/customising/index.html

Good ideas tend to come around again, although the Leviathan is Chuck Nickles design - and a difficult one too - he says the most difficult tuba ever to make. On a tuba this size a rotary 4th valve is really the only way to maintain the 3+1 valve set-up and make it ergonomically playable.

And the result is comfortable to hold - the 4th valve reach is less than on even an Eb tuba.

The “Leviathan” might be reason enough for me to return to one of the Chicago-area brass bands which may have a BBb Bass vacancy...at least on a sub/dep basis...

Here is the new TB691 Leviathan compensated 6/4 BBb which I have just brought back to the UK. It will now be going to some championship BBb Bass players to get feedback before we get into production.

We think it plays great - and now with some rerouting of tubing and silver-plated looks great too.





The sale price will depend on if we decide to go with regular formed bows, or hand-hammered.

BTW Where my hand is in second photo, shows the reach to the 4th valve which is operated by lever behind the 1st valve tubing.