Adams 4/4 CC?

[Mitch]

Anyone else have a chance to play this horn?



I like a lot of things about it. Reminds me a lot of my old Hirsbrunner, for obvious reasons, and was fun to play.

List price is $13,500 for silver 4p + 1r. Street price will possibly be around $10,000, which isn't bad for a horn on which all the bows and the bell are hand-made. So far, it looks like a guy in Malden, MA, Trent Austin, is going to be the one to carry them (I would love to get it in a hall by itself, without a lot of competing noise, to put it through its paces and really see what it's got. I think it was in a kind of funky spot in the exhibit hall.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like the convex buttons, but liked them. I'd be interested in hearing reviews from anyone else who's played one of these.

[toobagrowl]

Never heard or seen one before. Could you tell us more about it? Where is it made? That horn is obviously a HB-21 copy. Looks nice though.

[Tom]

It appears almost identical to the HB-21.

There have been a few posts made here on the Adams-Hirsbrunner relationship, so the Hirsbrunner look to it isn't a huge surprise. Personally I do not care for the HB-21, so I'm wondering if you would consider this "improved version" or "just like" the HB-21 in terms of how it plays.

[toobagrowl]

So...

Of all of the various 4/4 CC tubas that Hirsbrunner made that were exported to the USA via Michigan, which would most consider the MOST popular and which would most consider the LEAST popular?

HB-2
HB-2P
HB-21
...etc...

Not really sure as I have not played on HB's in several years. But I DO remember my tuba colleague at college over 7 years ago owning a HB-21. Pretty good horn that had a very nice round sound, easy to play, well built.....but I remember the Eb in the staff as being quite FLAT......at least 25c or so even with lipping. That Adams 4/4 CC tuba looks almost just like his HB-21.
The best HB 4/4 CC that I played was MANY years ago at TE. It was an old HB-2P with the loop in the leadpipe in excellent condition. GREAT horn in every way Of course I have enjoyed the HB Yorkbrunner "Grand Orchestral" tubas I have played also.

[chrisginstl]

Of all of the various 4/4 CC tubas that Hirsbrunner made that were exported to the USA via Michigan, which would most consider the MOST popular and which would most consider the LEAST popular?

HB-2
HB-2P
HB-21
...etc...

Could call 'Michigan' to see what's sold the most to get to "popular". Of course popular may not indicate what you want it to ... (doing my best to refrain from politics here ). I played an older HB2 and also an HB21 in the late 90s. To me, the HB2 was a little stuffy and slow to respond in the lower register...

my $0.02

[Mitch]

I owned a 2P for 15 years. It plays a lot like it. I didn't have that much of an opportunity to discuss the whole history with them, but if you search through old threads, I believe their tooling came from Hisbrunner, maybe(?). I think the old thread was something like, "What's happening with Hirsbrunner?" or something like that. They're a Dutch company, apparently active in buying up other companies.

http://www.adams-music.com/nl/wf/instruments/tuba/

It played very evenly through all registers. I liked a lot about it.

Some old threads to search:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37964&p=332272
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37639
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36048

These posts can offer more than I can reinvent here. I will leave it up to the reader to draw independent conclusions regarding what's going on with whom.

But it's a nice horn, with mostly hand-made parts, for a lower price than Hirsbrunners...

[MartyNeilan]

I have heard a couple of HB2-P and had a chance to play on a great one for a couple of minutes once. This is the model with the "pigtail" leadpipe. Strangely, they seem to play better than the "improved" model with the shorter, straight-in leadpipe. Not too long ago, Bloke posted in another thread something about the advantages of "classic" tuba designs with longer leadpipes vs. the newer generation of tubas with shorter leadpipes.
Marty "currently playing on the sturmpanzerwagen of tubas"

[toobagrowl]

Wow...I guess I am not alone in thinking the HB-2P was Hirsbrunner's best 4/4 CC.
I was waiting for someone to post it, but it looks like the Hirsbrunner website is alive and well. The HB-2P (HBS-390) along with the other models is on there: http://www.hirsbrunner.com/lang/de/inst ... _Tuba.html#" target="_blank

I agree that HB's always seemed overpriced and over-hyped.......mostly because of the lone US distributor who had total "dibs" on them. Now you don't hear much about HB's but if you are looking for a great 4/4 CC and are able to get your hands on an old HB-2P you will be pleasantly surprised and lucky! I just remember the 2P as having a very even scale and response with a clear projecting deep round sound.

[Dylan King]

I chopped off the 3rd slide my HB-21 for that reason.

I had Robb Stewart do the same thing to my Yorkbrunner right after I bought it, and it went from a C to a solid B+ in ease of intonation. For some reason they built that particular slide too long at that time.

[KenS]

I have owned an old HB2 (purchased new in 1976 w/ metal rotors), an HB-21 and an HB-2P. The 2 was a nice horn as is my current 2P. The 21, not so much. My Eb (1st ledger line, below the staff) was extremely flat and the damn horn was just too much work to play.

So if I had to rank them,

2P and 2 pretty much the same

and somewhere down below...





the 21.

In fact, if the 21 was the only 4/4 they made, I'd look elsewhere.

Ken S