Horns at ITEC 2010 that you liked best

[bisontuba]

Hi-
Now that ITEC 2010 is history, for those of you who attended, what horns did you like best or that impressed you the most?
Regards-
mark

[Tom Holtz]

Kanstul took a York monster Eb top-action three-banger and used that as a template for a top-action 4-valve Eb, a front action 5-valve Eb, and a small CC that is like a Getzen G50 without the design issues. The Eb tubas are nice, still need some tweaking of the fourth valves. The CC was GREAT. I really enjoyed playing that horn. If you're lamenting the fact that Getzen stopped selling the G50, which was an awesome little tuba, Kanstul has their own version now.

[MaryAnn]

I didn't do a lot of play-testing; not that fond of elephant rooms. I played all the B&S F tubas and didn't like them any better than my MW 182, although the gold brass ones were prettier.

I ordered a Sterling comper for a 15 day trail later in June, if they happen to have what I want in stock. I'll see how it works (expect the intonation to be ok) with the brass band.

I took home a non-comp Kanstul euph to put on the tuner (once again, can't tell a damn thing in elephant rooms.) I liked its ergonomics a lot, but the tuner told a tale that caused me to take it back the next morning. (I met Lee Stofer at the Kanstul booth; nice to meet him in person.)

Also met Ken Sloan and Ken Friedrick, nice short conversations with both; didn't meet any other Tubenetters that I knew of. I guess no one did the "Tubenet dot" thing this ITEC.

And by Saturday I was *really* "conferenced out." There was a great Air Force band concert Saturday night and I just wanted to take a nap.

MA

[Wes Krygsman]

Alright, I'll bite. I tried a bunch of horns, mostly CC's and F's. I have a little system I have used every time I try horns. When first picking it up, I noticed ergonomically if it's a comfortable fit. Then I play an arpeggio in the "home" key of the horn going into all ranges, then some scales in all ranges. I do a few slurs to check the ease of slotting, then play some music. So now I'll go over some of my observations. Please remember though that every player is different and what works for me might not work for you, and vise-versa.

To start my two favorite horns at the conference were the Yamayork and the Yamaha Bobo F. I currently play a Nirschl 6/4 York and was looking forward to comparing the two. I thought the Yamayork played very similarly to my horn, which of course I liked. Very quick response in every register, a little better in the low range response than my horn. Without a tuner, it seemed to my ear to be fairly in tune. The only thing I couldn't tell if I liked was the sound. Of course is was good, but my Nirschl's sound is perfect to my ear, and in a small room it's hard to tell what it was doing "out front." I didn't have my horn with me so I couldn't do an A-B test either, but that might be a future endeavor.

The Yamaha Bobo F tuba was my favorite F tuba. I was actually using this conference to mainly try F's to see which one I'm saving for. This tuba won out of every F at the conference, with the Petruschka just behind. The response was amazing in every register, the sound wasn't too tubby like I felt with the 822 F, and once again seemed to be in tune. It was just easy to play anything that I tried. My definite first choice for an F if I can muster the cash.

I spent the most time with the 2 previously mentioned horns because I couldn't put them down, which was surprising because in the past I have not liked Yamaha tubas.

The others I tried I'll only put minor observations. Of course once again YMMV.

Meinl Westons-I tried the Baer and Thor and while both great horns(in tune, even response throughout ranges, etc.), I feel like they take too much work for me to play without the results I'm looking for. They were also ergonomically wrong for me(can't figure out where to put my left hand to comfortably hold them). I like feedback from the tuba's vibration and these horns didn't do that for me. The new 2250 F tuba played really well, but I noticed some fight in the low range and a noticeably out of tune partial that turned me off. Once again, I couldn't find a comfy place for my left hand to hold the horn(as you can see, that's a big deal to me, as the horn needs to be balanced with that hand and slides might need to be manipulated). The 2182 was also a good one, but the 2250 was better and I played that first so it ruined this horn for me. The 2000 is a great horn but just not for me.

I like the Besson 995 alot, but the weight of the tuba ruins it a bit for me. I think lighter brass responds better, and if it was made thinner, I'd be all over this horn. The Yamayork and my Nirschl are extremely light tubas, weight wise, and I think they are on to something with this thinner brass (they would not hold up in a school setting of course).

The Nirschl B flats were good, both the rotary and the piston. The 2 CC's were good as well, but I think the lead pipe angle "fix" was way over done as it now comes around too much forcing the horn angle to be too much. The Kanstul's were great horns (the contrabass bone was fun to play), but I had the left hand ergonomic issue with these horns. The only other B flat I remember was the King 2341. It was a great example of that horn.

I tried out just about every F tuba at the conference as that was my main goal with trying horns. I realized that I absolutely cannot deal with any rotary F anymore. The pistons are just easier in every way. I know that working on the low range helps, but I've done that on my school's MW 45S, and if I don't have to deal with it, I'm not going to with the horn I purchase. The only rotary F I liked was the JBL classic, but still couldn't get over that low range crap. The PT 10p still had some low range issues, but was great in the other ranges. The other yamaha F's were not great for me, the 822 f was too big/tubby, and the 621 f was too small and barky to me. As I previously mentioned, the Petruschka is a close 2nd place in my F tuba search.

I didn't get to try to Wilsons, but I heard some good and bad things about them. They are usually very heavy horns, but I'll have to see for myself next chance I get.

I can't think of any others that stick out to me, so I hope these reviews help.

[TubaNerd88]

Glad to see you tried a lot of horns, Wes!

I was also horn-obsessed at ITEC. I'll try to make this as organized as possible.

Best F tuba (IMO): Firebird with the PT-10 following a very close 2nd.
Best C tuba (IMO): The new 1293 followed by the Willson CC tuba.

Miraphone: I was at this booth the most. I just couldn't get away from it. I was fascinated with the new 1293 they had on display. Note slotting was excellent on the horn, the sound was very dark and round, and had a strong presence because of the wider bell. The bigger 5th valve was also a nice addition to the low range as it popped out notes easily without even trying. Next came the Firebird. The horn spoke so easily and the note slotting on it was incredible. It has that zing to the sound that I love. The Petrouchka they had on display was very nice as well, but I like the brighter sound that the Firebird gives out. The other horns I tried were also good and were made very well ergonomically.

Yamaha: The first thing I tried when I walked in was the Yamayork. The sound was very dark and felt big. Would I spend over $30,000 on the horn? Probably not. The horn had some very good qualities, but there were a few things I didn't like about the horn. Ergonomically, it's a little hard to hold for me. There were a few note slotting issues as well that I didn't like. It's a nice horn, but it's not for me. I also tried both the 621 and the 822 F models. The 621 had a stronger low range, to me, than the 822. The 621 edged out a little quicker than the 822, but it wasn't overbearing.

Meinl-Weston: The first horn I picked up in the room was the new 2250 F tuba. This horn is huge for an F tuba. Probably about the same size as the Willson F tubas. The horn had a nice dark sound, and note slotting was very nice for the most part. The only complaint I had was the low range. It wasn't extremely hard to control, but I felt like I had to do a little too much work with it to get the sound I wanted. Just a minor issue though. (If this horn deserves any hype, Velvet Brown and Roland Szentpali both used it for their performances.) Next was the 6450 Baer model. I tried the production model first and had a nice round, even sound throughout all registers and it took almost no effort to produce a sound on it. It was very easy to hold ergonomically. Then I tried the handmade model and it made all the difference in the world! Literally almost no effort at all to produce sound on the horn and note slotting was incredible! Would I pay over $20,000 for this horn? Most likely yes.

Kanstul: I was excited to tryout their popular CC tuba that everyone has been talking about. The first thing that shocked me was the low range. Probably the easiest-to-play low range I've experienced out of all the CC tubas I tried. There were some very minor intonation problems, but nothing that can't be worked out. There were two things I didn't like about the horn: The smaller valve buttons and the ergonomics. I had to almost jam my wrist between the top bow and the bell to grab the first valve slide. I think Kanstul is doing a great job with these horns. They just need a minor ergonomic fix on the CC tuba.

Willson: I've never played on a Willson horn before, so this was my first time trying out their horns. Both F tubas really impressed me, and these things are built like a tank! The XS model had an easier note response than the XL model, but the XL model had a much bigger sound and better tone color (IMO) than the XS. Next was their CC model. This is probably the heaviest-weighing tuba I've ever played on. You could probably drop this horn from about 40 feet and it wouldn't do anything to it. The tone color and presence of sound was unbelievable. Intonation was pretty good, but there were a few issues. Not bad though. Note response was also very nice and took very little effort to produce a sound on the horn.

Other horns I tried were the new Jupiter CC tuba, the Miraphone 1291, and 1292, the MW Kodiak F tuba, and many others. I had the best time of my life at ITEC this year since it was my first time ever going to one. I cannot wait for ITEC 2012!

- Matthew "who was a complete tuba nerd at ITEC" Gray

[UTSAtuba]

Just curious if there are any others who went and can give some opinions

Joseph

[tubadavid94]

For CC tuba hands down the Yamayork. For F tuba the Bobo model yamaha.