I owned a rotor PT-6 for 12 years and enjoyed it thoroughly. I thought it blew just fine, but then again I was coming off a 4/4 Hirsbrunner, so just about anything would have blown better. After the slew of recent auditions (while I was still in good shape), I visited Derek Finstermacher (a great student at BAMA who owns a great PT-6P) and test drove licks on my rotary vs. his piston. After I played the first lick on the rotary and went to the piston, the students who were there started laughing in disbelief...I started crying! The piston spoke SO much faster...it wasn't subtle.
Now then, my PT-6 was made in 1994, so take that into account. I don't really know how the current versions play.
Gary Offenloch and I met up at Custom Music when they had about 12 PT-6Ps in stock. I played them all and took notes, then played them for Gary the next day and compared notes. We ran the 6Ps through a rigorous audition process! I wound up with "the best one for me."
My personal observations...
My piston: smoother slurs, more even tone throughout all registers, quicker attacks (I noticed I came in early for about a week after I bought the thing!), takes more air (but then again, I chose the freest blowing one out of 12), new intonation discrepancies, heavier (but they're making both versions heavier now than when they did in '94)
My (former) rotary: had a beautiful sound, intonation was easy to manage, kinda had an "err" sound in the lower register (that's partly because I suck)
It's funny...when I first started playing the 6P in the orchestra, I thought it didn't project as much as my rotary. Truth is, the rotary was more easily heard up close while the 6P puts it out there.
Bottom line: both horns rock. Go play some of them and get what does "it" for you!
The difference between the rotary vs piston pt-6
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Drbuzzz
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Wyvern
- Wessex Tubas
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Hi Jason,bigtubadaddy wrote:Even when I started oiling daily, it still got gunked up.
That is really strange
- what oil are you using? I use Al Cass inside the valves and as I say, never have had a problem. If any of the Neptune valves gets a bit slow, or I can feel resistance, then I oil, and have never had one stick. Incidentally, I normally oil by turning it on its bell, pull out the main tuning slide and then drop oil down while wiggling the valves.