Brass guage

[sailn2ba]

Different tubas are made with different thicknesses of brass sheet. I have been told that Miraphone makes a TE-191 version of their 191 BBb that is made of thinner brass, and it was said to be "more resonant". What might that mean to the overall sound of the horn? Also, Cervenys are known as being made from more easily dented brass than other tubas. Do they make any comparable models from heavier stock?

[Ace]

Other than my Cerveny tubas which have thinner brass, I have owned two Cerveny four-rotor trombones (Bb tenor and F bass) and a killer C/Bb upright euphonium that have been very sturdily made with heavy brass. I'm speculating that Cerveny makes their tubas with thin brass because of the sound and not because of savings in the cost of materials. Anyone know for certain?

[imperialbari]

Other than my Cerveny tubas which have thinner brass, I have owned two Cerveny four-rotor trombones (Bb tenor and F bass) and a killer C/Bb upright euphonium that have been very sturdily made with heavy brass. I'm speculating that Cerveny makes their tubas with thin brass because of the sound and not because of savings in the cost of materials. Anyone know for certain?

I tend to agree with you. The German/Czech tradition is not strong in slide trombones, especially not in bass trombones. The bite in the bass function had to come from the tubas, and distinct attack is more easily produced on instruments made of thin metal.

The British makers used gussets in their bell flares to avoid the metal becoming overly thin from the hammering. The German/Czech tubas rarely had gussets, but then often had very little flare and that flare then was reinforced by a garland. Which also helped the sound staying stable in louder dynamics.

The late Ernst Mosch had two tenor trombones, a bass, and a contrabass tuba in the touring version of his Egerländer band, which had the flugelhorns, the Tenorhörner, and the Baritöne generously doubled. Only in the recording studio he added a bass trombone.

Klaus

[oedipoes]

I tend to agree with you. The German/Czech tradition is not strong in slide trombones, especially not in bass trombones. The bite in the bass function had to come from the tubas, and distinct attack is more easily produced on instruments made of thin metal.

The brass bell of my old kaiser is heavilty dented, despite the presence of a silver garland.
I can easily deform the wrinkles with my bare hands, so it's very, very thin.
To create the same wrinkle in a Yamaha Ybb 321 you would need a crash test with a truck or similar.
I'm not sure the thin bell creates more bite, I tend to believe the opposite. But it could be bore or mouthpiece related, I don't know.
My experience is that the yamaha works better in big-band style, for now. But it's piston - valved, small bore... completely different from the kaiser so I can not address this to the bell thickness for sure.