Bohm & Meinl

[J. Laux]

While looking through the random shops for used F tuba prices, I came across a Bohm & Meinl F on Baltimore Brass site. http://baltimorebrass.net/index.php?cat=5

I was wondering if any of the resident music history pros could enlighten me to some info about this company, as well as the obligatory "What is the quality of the instruments they make, and how do they sound?" question.

[Rick Denney]

B&M is one of the older West German tuba manufacturers. They made the York Master line in the 50's and 60's, and they also made many of the (coveted by some) Marzan tubas following that. More recently, they sold the Model 5500 and 5520 Bb and C (respectively) piston tubas, which are similar to the Marzan, which was a variation on the York Master. The Bb 5500 is one of the better large 4/4 piston Bb tubas ever made, in my view. The C's were more uncertain.

In the early 90's, the B&M factory was purchased by Walter Nirschl. Nirschl now makes Nirschl-branded tubas and also offers tubas under the old B&M label. These are called "BM Symphonic". He has told us on this forum that he can make any of the 5500-series instruments--the tooling is all still there. Nirschl also now owns the Kalison line.

While the piston tubas were made for the U.S. market, they also made conventional rotary tubas for the European market. Back in the day, these were very competitively priced as I recall, and were marketed in the U.S. by DEG. I always thought of them as a cheaper alternative to a Miraphone. But I have never played one of their conventional rotary tubas or even seen one up close. (The Marzan slant-rotor tuba is a different matter.)

So, Boehm and Meinl is a well-established, first-line tuba manufacturer. I doubt anything they ever made would be considered junk.

Here's the current web page:

http://www.walternirschl.de/sites/instrumente_neu.html

It's in German, but though it lists an F tuba under the BM Symphonic label it doesn't picture it or describe it well enough to know if it's the same design as being sold by BB.

I've never been close to one of their F tubas. The picture is not that revealing, in that it has no scale, and I can't tell if it's B&S-sized or Alexander-sized. I suspect the latter. If so, it might not have the dimensions that most Americans prefer for F tubas. It looks to be maybe 20-30 years old, at a guess.

Dave will probably bring it to the Army conference on Friday. I'm sure I'll take a turn on it, unless it sells before I get to it.

Rick "getting Miraphone 180 vibes from the picture" Denney

[J. Laux]

Thanks for the quick reply! Apparently this model is still made according to the Nirschl site. I wish I was located more to a coast so I could attend more conferences to try some of the wares. Trying to decide if a moderately priced older instrument would work for me through college is a lot tougher when I can't try anything without an entire day trip.

[imperialbari]

Comparing the lengths of uneven shapes just from photos isn’t easy. Yet the fifth valve of this tuba does not look like being a long whole step, rather it appears to be a long semitone. Might not be too hard to correct.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

This B&M 282 F tuba has a bell diameter of 38 cm, the same as the two current Alexander F-models. The B&S F models at least used to have a diameter of 420 mm.

Klaus

[jonesbrass]

This one might be of more recent vintage, also, based upon the ball and socket linkage. Unless the previous owner converted it, that is. Looks like it's definitely worth a try, to me. Don't let the expected size of the horn dissuade you, either. People are frequently surprised by the amount of sound a "smaller" horn can produce . . .

[cjk]

Didn't that tuba belong to MikeMason?

[Rick Denney]

This one might be of more recent vintage, also, based upon the ball and socket linkage. Unless the previous owner converted it, that is. Looks like it's definitely worth a try, to me. Don't let the expected size of the horn dissuade you, either. People are frequently surprised by the amount of sound a "smaller" horn can produce . . .

Most of the better manufacturer's had switched to ball-and-socket linkages like these by the early 80's. Even my old B&S Symphonie, definitely from the very early 80's or earlier, had linkages similar to these, as did the Cerveny I bought in '84. My Miraphone dates from the late 70's, and had those terrible white plastic ball-and-socket linkages.

Rick "reluctantly getting used to the idea that a tuba made in 1980 is decades old" Denney

[MikeMason]

Yes.Search archives or pm me for my thoughts...in a nutshell,for me,someone who hasn't mastered rotary f tuba low register,it was super in and above the staff.challenging around low c.

[Rick Denney]

I played it at the conference. Yes, it has a tuning trigger. The sound was decent, and the low register not too bad. My comparison to a Miraphone 180 is appropriate. This one would have been a budget alternative to the 180. It's a competent instrument, but it's not a classic B&S or Alexander from that era. It would be quite good for someone wanting to get into a decent F tuba for a small sum so that they could learn the instrument. I thought the same of the Dalyan F that BB is also selling. These are priced quite fairly for what you get, it seems to me.

Rick "who played a LOT of F tubas this week" Denney

[bort]

So...did anyone come home with this one?