Why no EEb's?

[Dan Schultz]

Electric guitars are a fact of life.

Bleeeech!! Says who?! Guitars suck! Give the guitar player a banjo! If you've gotta mike the tuba, the trumpet is too damned loud!

Hmmm. You're evidently not listening to the right guitars, or the right guitarists. (I won't elaborate, as this is off-topic. Contact me for listening recommendations if you WANT to reconsider your position. Ignore this if you wish to remain blissfully convinced that a banjo sounds better than a guitar!)

Best Regards,

Heh, heh.... you're sooooo right! I have been listening to the wrong guitarists! The fact of the matter is... there are waaaayyyy to many 'wrong' guitarists AND trumpet players. Guitars and trumpets should cost $10,000 and tubas should cost $500! This is just a personal thing with me after doing many gigs with only the guitar and keyboard on the mics. Done correctly... EVERYTHING should be mic'd and run through a sound mixer board operated by a COMPETANT operator.

'I knows a good guitarist when I's hears one'

[GC]

RE: sucky guitarists

A good guitarist can play in any key, period, including flat keys. Only mediocre guitarists have trouble with flat keys. That's what position playing, Barre chords, and other movable chord fingerings are for.

Guitars do not, by themselves, suck. It takes a human being to make one suck.

[iiipopes]

Hey! I resemble that remark! You forgot one appliance: the capo. After years of disdaining a capo as purely a crutch for those who only know first position chords, I've finally started exploring it in earnest as a timbre and voicing tool as well. After all George Harrison used one to great effect both with the Beatles and solo.

Now if only I could figure out a capo on my tuba for the sharp keys...

BTW: Except on the rare occasion, I don't use an amplifier anymore. Line6 POD is the way to go. But you gotta have trust in your sound man and a high quality sound system matched to the room. Fortunately, for my weekly gig, I have both, so the whole band sounds great, regardless of the instrumentation or additional/different musicians from week to week.

[Chuck(G)]

Now if only I could figure out a capo on my tuba for the sharp keys...

Well, if you play a CC, why not a locking valve to lower it to B (or if you play BBb, one to raise it to B)?

There ya go---5 sharps for free!

[Wyvern]

The huge "black velvet cushion" sound is obviously most lush on a vast big bore BBb - he told me that an EEb or F with a big bore, big bell and big mouthpiece can be convincingly "huge, sonorous and all embracing" - until you actually bring along real live monster CC or BBb.

That is certainly my experience. When I used a Besson Sovereign EEb for everything, I would argue vigorously that a BIG tuba was not really necessary. I felt I produced a big sound even in the low register on the EEb and I had never had a conductor complain.

However since I have started playing a real 6/4 CC, I realize that there is no way such a rich sonorous sound can be produced on an EEb, particularly in the low register. Using a 6/4 CC is not about volume of sound, but depth of sound.

All the same, the greater clarity and different tonal characteristics of an F/Eb are most suitable for some works. I heard Bruckner Symphony No. 6 last year with a German orchestra where an F tuba was used and it was really ideal for that music - a CC, in my opinion would just not be the right sort of sound.

The large bell and wide leadpipe on the Besson 981 was rather a compromise, to bring out some contrabass tuba sound from a bass tuba. When I was trying out CCs, I was really struck at how similar 4/4 CC sounded to the Besson EEb, although of course the CC had a more open low register.

I today prefer to use my Melton Eb for my orchestral playing where a bass tuba is suitable, not least because it sounds like a real bass tuba which Pop Korn quite rightly says is like the difference in tone between a cello and string bass.

[iiipopes]

Now if only I could figure out a capo on my tuba for the sharp keys...

Well, if you play a CC, why not a locking valve to lower it to B (or if you play BBb, one to raise it to B)?

There ya go---5 sharps for free!

All I would need is a different slide for the thumb valve. Of course!

[windshieldbug]

Now if only I could figure out a capo on my tuba for the sharp keys...

Well, if you play a CC, why not a locking valve to lower it to B (or if you play BBb, one to raise it to B)?

There ya go---5 sharps for free!

Or, if you play a BBb that was set up for High and Low pitch, you already have it!

[ken k]

why no EEb's?

because we want to keep them all to ourselves, and not let anyone else in on our littel secret......