The Ever Changing Tuba Craze

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Thu May 04, 2006 8:57 pm

I think what you are talking about is a regional thing. I don't know of any serious tuba players around here want anything more to do with Mirafone/Miraphone after they left the area about 15 years ago. When I was growing up, Mirafone was the thing because they were a local company. Everyone owned one.

Most people around here want either a Yamaha or something old.

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Thu May 04, 2006 10:39 pm

In my community band are two fellows, father and son, who have "matching" (not really, one is a uniball and the other is an S-linkage) 186 Miraphones, and they are very secure and happy in their instruments. The father, a retired physician, has some other neat instruments at his house, most "picked up for a song," (pun intended) at flea markets, private deals and such, just for their curiosity. Another guy has his Star East German stencil, and is happy as a clam. Another guy brings the Conn 12J from his wife's school (she's a band director) and having just recently purchased a Conn Helleberg mouthpiece is having more fun than he's had in years, and simply will not be laden with any larger sized tuba. And I am pleased as punch with my Besson, being the anglophile I am, and having my tuned exhaust tailored to fit with a custom angled receiver (done with a block of wood and a hammer to the brace!) Thein-styled node tweaking (with golfer's lead tape at the strategic points!) and all original caps, buttons, etc. (after 35 years as a rental horn before I got it, that IS something to crow about!) with perfect valves and intonation -- well, as perfect as a comp can get!

Then there's the guy with a beautiful newer Kalison CC large valve with all the bells and whistles - silver plated, detachable lead pipe, adjustible thumb ring, etc., ad infinitum, ad nausaeum, who loves to play two octaves below the score. And he's ALWAYS complaining about not being able to have this or that tuba, and the next BAT he wants, and...well you get the picture. It's no different than with automobiles, guitars, and with some people, partners of the opposite sex: the grass always seems greener on the other side.

Was it Roger Bobo or Bill Bell who said that every time he thinks about getting a new mouthpiece, he goes and practices three hours on the one he has instead?

Gorilla Tuba · Post by **Gorilla Tuba** » Thu May 04, 2006 10:55 pm

For a few people, a new or different horn truly is a step toward finding the right match between player and instrument. There may not be a perfect horn for any particular player, but I think that is accurate to say a first tuba purchase has to be your last... there may definitely be a better fit out there.

For the other 97.6% of us, a new horn... or the latest fad, is an attempt to sound great without having to practice as much.

In our romantic lives, we date many people until we find the right fit. Although it is all too common to trade your old wife in on a new one, rarely are we actually trading up. To get rid of a perfectly good wife just because there are shinier new models available is just bad form... and you usually regret the trade in. I wish I had my old Conn 3J back. My ex-wife... that was a good trade.

Happiness is not having what you want, but rather wanting what you have.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Thu May 04, 2006 11:15 pm

During the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, there was a change of band directors. Our old band director moved to a school in the San Diego area and his assistant became the band director. She had plans to really revolutionize the band. One of them was to clean up all the debris (ephemera that accumulated since the band hall was erected in 1921). We found a lot of old things. We found two perfect Buescher sousaphones, which were immediately refurbished and put to use (weighing 45 pounds apiece). We saw those old sousaphones in the high school yearbook, as early as 1923. There were also two very nice Buescher upright tubas, one each in BBb and Eb. I didn't realize it at the time, but the band director was offering to give me those two silver tubas, just to help clean up the building. That is something I have NEVER forgotten and it makes me sick every time I think about it!

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Fri May 05, 2006 12:03 am

Yes, when Buescher was a viable and respected brand, and not just another assimilation of the cyborg.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Fri May 05, 2006 12:15 am

Not in 1923 (we also saw pictures of the upright tubas in the old Crimson and Gold).

I should have written it Crimson and Gold!

Rick Denney · Post by **Rick Denney** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:52 am

LoyalTubist wrote:I think what you are talking about is a regional thing. I don't know of any serious tuba players around here want anything more to do with Mirafone/Miraphone after they left the area about 15 years ago. When I was growing up, Mirafone was the thing because they were a local company. Everyone owned one.

Because it was local? Maybe. But I really think what fueled the Miraphone popularity of the 1970's was Roger Bobo.

That seems to be how it works. When a player comes along who is extraordinarily successful, the instrument they promote becomes a fad for a while, until people realize (again) that getting the same horn does not mean getting the same results.

The current 1291 fad is driven by Alan Baer's success in recent auditions. The Conn 5xJ fad didn't have a single person at the center--that was a tuba that seemed to generate buzz on its own. Patrick Sheridan put the Besson 983 on the map. Chuck Daellenbach fueled the initial popularity of the Getzen G-50 (when it was the CB-50). Arnold Jacobs and his followers have driven the York-o-phone craze (which is much more than a fad). Roger Bobo made Miraphones the tuba to own. Jim Self drove the success of the Yamaha 822. Daellenbach (again) attracted attention to the Yamaha 621. Carol Janstch has fueled a blip in PT-6 interest. Some of the promoters were overt: B&S F tubas can be excellent in their own right but I doubt they would have become the de facto orchestral F standard were it not for Dan Parantoni. There are others too numerous to name.

Many of these instruments really are great tubas, and thus they earn their keep for a while until the next big thing comes along. If the instruments turn out to be dogs, their popularity doesn't last long.

But I agree there is a regional interest. The Conns weren't the big hit out west that they were in the eastern half of the country, probably because there was no west-coast dealer making a big deal out of them.

Rick "whose tubas have stood the test of time" Denney

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:37 am

The best part of the "latest tuba" fad is being able to get great horns that are being cast off by people who were unable to solve their [insert problem here] issue just by getting the latest iron. I know that I was able to get my horn in the 70's for two reasons:

1. With supply and demand being what it is, a ton of the same model hitting the market at the same time tends to drop prices no matter how good it is, and

2. Having the finances of a student, you are more than willing to buy such a horn and work with it long enough to overcome its perceived shortcoming.

I suspect that this phenomenon went as far back as the ophicleide.

Steve Marcus · Post by **Steve Marcus** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:59 am

There may be a "latest tuba" fad. But whenever someone posts a "what tuba model should I buy" inquiry, the answers are still all over the map--truly based upon each individual's experience and bias.

One becomes acutely aware of this when one is actually in the market for a tuba (not just casually reading other posts) but hasn't yet focused or decided upon a particular model.

Bandmaster · Post by **Bandmaster** » Fri May 05, 2006 4:02 pm

Rick Denney wrote:Because it was local? Maybe. But I really think what fueled the Miraphone popularity of the 1970's was Roger Bobo.

Yep... back in the 70's Roger Bobo was every Southern California tuba player's idol. Bobo played a Miraphone, so they all wanted a Miraphone. It didn't hurt any that Tommy Johnson was also playing a Miraphone at the time! Plus having a major Miraphone distribution center in town in those days made trying one and owning one very easy.

I remember getting a price on a brand new 186-5v for only $2200 in 1976. Several of my section mates at Long Beach State picked one up that year.

circusboy · Post by **circusboy** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:32 pm

Plus having a major Miraphone distribution center in town in those days made trying one and owning one very easy.

Dave is right. As an amateur player, I'm not going to take the time and money to fly to Elkhart and Detroit and New York--much less to Germany--to try out tubas. Currently in Southern California, we're probably another several months until the first Miraphone 1291 gets in to Ferguson Music, and then there'll be very little with which to compare it.

I suspect that most non-pro tubists end up with their particular horns by reasons of convenience and availability as much as anything else.

I also know that no tuba manufacturer sets out to make a bad tuba. Some are better than others, yes, but most all of them can be made into a fine musical partner.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:41 pm

I am not so sure that Roger Bobo was the major influence in Southern California. I would guess it more to be Tommy Johnson. You could hear him play on movies and TV shows. And there were a lot more Mirafone ads with his picture on them. Roger Bobo had to be seen with the L.A. Phil. You had to pay to see him or buy an LP. But Tommy Johnson could be heard for free. Just watch a Flinstones rerun.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Fri May 05, 2006 8:09 pm

Were you there? I was there. Roger Bobo was unapproachable, or so we thought. I took a couple of lessons from Tommy Johnson. And you could impress friends by saying you knew the guy who played the tuba for so many TV shows and movies.

Bandmaster · Post by **Bandmaster** » Sat May 06, 2006 2:43 am

LoyalTubist wrote:I am not so sure that Roger Bobo was the major influence in Southern California.

Didn't you go to college out in Redslands? Maybe you were just too far away from downtown L.A. to notice. I grew up next to Long Beach and at Long Beach State we had Jim Self as our instructor. But I knew a lot guys that drove to Bobo's house to take extra lessons. And being a little aloof just heightened his mistique... Yes, Tommy was a big influence too and was famous for all the movie and TV gigs, but Bobo was recording and releasing the solo albums.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Sat May 06, 2006 3:18 am

No, I went to Cal Baptist. I was good friends with the Jorgenson family at Redlands and studied with Gene Pokorny when he was there. Even from what Gene told me, Roger Bobo seemed untouchable. He knew him well. I studied with Jim Self (in South Pasadena first, then Hollywood) all through high school and my first stint in college, until I went away to school, then dropped out to join the Army. Jim Self talked about Tommy Johnson a lot. And I met Tommy before I met Jim, so he didn't seem that untouchable. It wasn't the solo albums that won me over. It was the TV stuff. I live around a lot of nonmusical types who have fairly conservative musical tastes. In my maturity, my own musical tastes have shifted that way. Tommy Johnson was on the "Mancini Generation." That was big stuff, even though that TV show didn't last very long.

sloan · Post by **sloan** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:15 pm

LoyalTubist wrote:Not in 1923 (we also saw pictures of the upright tubas in the old Crimson and Gold).

I should have written it Crimson and Gold!

No, you shouldn't have!