College/University Owned Tubas

[quinterbourne]

Is anyone familiar with colleges or universities owning (professional quality) tubas for tuba students? If so, please let me know a) what the college/university is, b) what brand and model the college/university owns and c) what the conditions are like surrounding the use of the instrument by students (ie do they rent the instrument, is available to only certain students, etc).

It would be even better if I could find out info from Canadian Universities, but all schools in the US would make good research.

I'm trying to get our University to purchase an F tuba for performance students to use. I find that we really need to have an F tuba because of all the solo music we play while in school. It doesn't really make much sense to purchase one, as a student, since we tend to do very little solo playing when we leave university.

Many students can't afford to purchase more than one tuba, and a 4/4 contrabass tuba would be the better choice (compared to an F), since the F tuba wouldn't work so well in most university orchestral and band situations, and the majority of our playing after university would be in orchestras, bands and quintet.

[Charlie Goodman]

I'm pretty sure Western Michigan University has at least one B & S F that they own. I think music majors can borrow it. I'm not entirely sure, though.

[jbeish]

At Indiana University of Pennsylvania, we offer 2 Kalison D.S.'s, 2 Miraphone 186's, a Meinl Weston 25, and a B & S F tuba. However, all instruments are in need of service, which the school does not cover.

Also: we have a BBb affectionately called "Crunch" as well as 2 Yamaha Eb's and a Miraphone Eb.

[tubagirl5]

We had one B&S PT-15 f tuba where I went to undergrad (University of South Florida, Tampa). I have since then purchased my own f tuba, but the school I am currently at (University of Massachusetts) has no tubas, not even for methods classes for education majors. USF had a DS model Kalison tuba and a miraphone C and Bb as well (plus some other mystery horns). At USF we had to sign a form indicating responsibility for the tuba while in our possession/use, etc. The tuba was housed in a locker where only students who used the f tuba would have a key. It was a great system until you have 6 plus tubists trying to practice it at once (and no one brushing their teeth before use!!!). It was a great way to learn f tuba before I had the finances to buy one and gave me the opportunity to make a solid purchase when it was time. Good luck!

[ThomasP]

My undergrad., The University of Southern Mississippi has 3 4/4 Rudy Meinl CC's that all need servicing, but still work, and all are played. They also have a recently purchased Musica 4/4 CC tuba, and a Meinl Weston 45S F, each of those are new and in good shape. The Meinl Weston being the only one that plays well.

My graduate school, The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music has 2 B&S "Perantucci" Model F's (aka PT-10's). They play well, but could use some work in my opinion. I am not aware of the school owning any CC tubas, just BBb's for Music Ed. Also, everyone here owns 2 horns, that's 7 tuba students.

[fpoon]

Virginia Tech has 4-5 Miraphone 186's (BBb) and 3-4 Yamaha 641's.

We also have a Yamaha 621 and I think some sort of F horn lying around somewhere.

The 186's rock pretty hard, and the 641's are terrible. I don't whethere its just our 641's suck, or the model itself.

[Sam Gnagey]

Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne has a 5-valve 186 CC and a 5-valve 181 F for students to use. Both are in very good condition.

[bort]

I think most big(ger) schools probably have some horns there. I think we had an old MW-25 (which I heard was pretty bad), 2 B&S PT-3's, and a huge old bell-front Conn that no one played. There might have been an old Eb there too. No F's though.

[THE TUBA]

Okay, let me see if I can remember some...

I think USC (South Carolina) has some Yamaha 641 BBbs (4/4, 4 rotor) and probably some CC Miraphones. I know they have at least one Yamaha 641? F (3/4, 4+1)

UNCG has (see below).

I auditioned for IU way back in January, but I think I remember Prof. Perantoni saying there were 15 F tubas at IU. 15! That is a lot of Effers!! Most are probably B&S (duh).

Furman University (SC) uses St. Petersburg BBbs in their wind ensemble (I don't know if they have any CCs, Fs, or Ebs)

[MartyNeilan]

Lee University, Cleveland, TN: "pro quality" tubas: 4 newish Mirafone 186's (BBb), 1 4/4 Amati/Cerveny rotary BBb (great playing Lee Stoferized example)
others include a beaten tall Besson 3 banger, old 3/4 Conn (?) 3 banger.
Other pro low instruments:
At least 2 newish Yamaha 641 (642?) euphs
Newish Bach 50B3 Inline Bass Bone (slide by the Slide Dr), older Yamaha side by side bass bone
Several decent (pro or semi-pro) upright basses
Contrabass clarinet and contrabassoon (no such thing as student models for these.)

When I was there I mentioned an F tuba would be good, but the two most recent "specialized" brass purchases have been a 4 valve pic trumpet and an alto trombone.

[LoyalTubist]

You really have to keep your eyes open for some things...

My old J.C. dropped its 79 year old instrumental music program (as well as music as a major field of study) last summer and sold off two Mirafone 186 BBb tubas and three 35 year old (but in new condition) King recording basses!

I only heard about the auction after the instruments were sold. Everything went for about $300 per item.

[iiipopes]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Oh, well, I'm glad someone got some good deals. I just hope whoever it was appreciates them.
At my undergrad I played a Yamaha CC621, and it was fair - 4 piston valves, .689 bore. I thought it would be great since it had a similar bore and appearance to the King I had just graduated from. It just never clicked with me, although I did use it again a couple of years ago to lay down a mostly "basic" I-V bass line on a slap-blues number on a friend's CD (yes, the "percussion" was exactly that - stomp and clap, and he played a resonator guitar. Came off great!). My opinion of this particular instrument has not changed; I'm just glad I remembered its quirks. I even used the same mouthpiece as then, and got a great tone for the track, which, of course, is not necessarily a great tone for concert band! As a (non-music) grad student I got to play a nice Miraphone in their second (non-music major) concert band, and it was really nice and smooth, but I don't remember if the mouthpiece was a C3 or C4.

[jameseuph642]

Eastern Kentucky University owns two Yamaha 822S CC's, one Miraphone 186 CC, three Yamaha YBB-641 BBb's, one king 2341 BBb, several old Meinl Westons (not sure what key), one 1950 Besson Eb (compensating), nine Conn 20K sousas for marching band and I think we have six or seven Yamaha YBB 103's for low brass methods. Euphoniums: we have two Yamaha YEP 642s, two Yamaha YEP-321's, two 1970 Bessons (4 valve compensating), and 4 or 5 really old three valve compensating bessons which are used by the low brass methods class. All of our Yamaha equipment is in excellent shape and our other horns are in decent shape too (Our tuba/euph teacher is also a repair man).

[LARSONTUBA]

My undergrad school, Louisiana State University, owns numerous older BBb tubas, 2 CC tubas, and 1 F tuba. The BBb I don't know what kind they were. One of the CCs was a Rudy Meinl, and the F was a Meinl Weston 45S-LP. They also own 28 Silver Yamaha Sousaphones for the ALMIGHTY Golden Band from Tigerland!!!!!

Geaux Tigers

After my graduation, I purchased a Willson 3200 piston F tuba, and that is the only tuba I own.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I am for MM, owns a few crappy BBb tubas, but that is all.

I play on my F and that's it. I haven't played a CC or BBb tuba in about a year. Except basketball pep band... because that rules.

[Cameron Gates]

When I was going to school at the University of Oregon, sometime around 1988, a beautiful King rotor BBb was found in the "attic". The story (at that time) was that Bill Bell gave a class at the school way back when and offered to buy the instrument. The brainiacs that ran the school back then decided the instrument was too valuable to let students play on it. They put it away and forgot about it. 1988 rolls around and POOF, out comes the genie from the bottle.

What a horn that thing is. String linkage that worked well, a straight one-piece bell, perfect lacquer, and a killer sound and feel. Probably in the garbage heap by now.

[iiipopes]

My band teacher solved that problem: part of your grade, if you played a school horn, was how well you took care of the horn. So we had (by the time I got to high school) OLD horns that were in perfect shape, but for normal wear and tear that was always put right by the local owner/tech of the music store in town. He then showed us the requisition forms when we got new instruments, so he had backup to the usual "responsibility" lecture. We listened and respected the instruments. Now, this included all the percussion, both multiple field percussion and symphonic top-line Ludwig everything: orchestral bass drum, 4 tympani, all the gadget percussion, Zildgian orchestral cymbals, glock, xylophone, tubular bells, 4 King 4-valve tubas, 6 sousaphones, a whole plethora of low woodwind, including both BBb and Eb sub contra and contra clarinets, 3 Bb bass clarinets, Eb alto clarinets, 2 bari saxophones, 2 bassoons, 2 oboes, and a silver Eb soprano clarinet, and that's just what I remember off the top of my head for this post.