Getzen CB50

[BuzzedB]

I had a thought when I was reading forums about tubas and one in particular stuck out in my mind. It is the Getzen CB50 I have read nothing but good things about and that made me think about why was it discontinued if it was soo good. Anyoe have any insight on this?

[SousaSaver]

Yeah. They didn't sell enough to justify the cost of the tooling/labor/materials. If they sold a great deal of them they might still be in production.

I know this because I spoke to a Getzen rep a few weeks ago about this topic specifically and that is what he told me. I take the information at face value because it seems very plausible.

[cjk]

Personally, I thought the CB50 / G50 was a garbage can.

So, now you can no longer say you have read nothing but good things about them.

[BuzzedB]

I wonder if Getzen had enough requests to recontinue the horns if they would restart the production. Just my thoughts coming out loud. And maybe a thought for everyone on tubenet to give to Getzen.

[TheHatTuba]

I wonder if Getzen had enough requests to recontinue the horns if they would restart the production. Just my thoughts coming out loud. And maybe a thought for everyone on tubenet to give to Getzen.

If only they had thought of that before Kanstul started up their York series.

[Tom]

Well...

Getzen has had a long and storied history of business deals with European manufacturers to have instruments built with their name on them. At one time Getzen also controlled the import and US distribution of several brands of European tubas. Since Getzen offer those particular tubas only through their dealer network, most people had no idea that Getzen was so tied in with the Swiss and German builders.

The Story goes that the G-50 grew out of a Bob Rusk cut tuba that ended up with Chuck Daellenbach of Canadian Brass. The Canadian Brass were (are) quite business savy and cut a deal with Getzen for their own line of instruments. They did a trumpet, trombone, horn, euphonium, and the tuba. Only the euphonium and the tuba were met with much success.

Anyway, the long story short is that Getzen didn't actually build either of those instruments. The euphonium is front action and was done by Willson. The tuba was done with parts from more than one source, but most of it was done by MW/B&S. There were reports that they were assembled by Getzen but I've been told by reliable sources that Getzen was actually being shipped complete instruments from Germany. The crappy plating that became associated with the G-50 was done jn Germany where it is apparently difficult and unusual to silver plate instruments (at least it was at the time). Anderson might have done some, but they did NOT do most of them, especially the early ones.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Getzen to do anything. Buy used if you want one or wait for the B&S conglomerate to get around to it again. The G-50 parts have been used in bits in pieces in a variety of tubas over the years. The Conn is similar, but the new Kanstul tubas might be closer to what the G-50 was.

I really liked mine when I had it...much nicer than the Conn, in my opinion.

[SousaSaver]

Tom -

Are you comparing the CB50 to the 5XJ by Conn? I would say that in almost all ways (and for very good reason) that the 5XJ is closer to a King 2341 than it is to a CB50.

Also, I don't think that it was any secret to anyone that much of Getzen's and DEG imported a great deal of instruments, especially the low brass. As a result, many of the manufacturers that worked with DEG and Getzen have worked together.

[Tom]

Tom -

Are you comparing the CB50 to the 5XJ by Conn? I would say that in almost all ways (and for very good reason) that the 5XJ is closer to a King 2341 than it is to a CB50.

Also, I don't think that it was any secret to anyone that much of Getzen's and DEG imported a great deal of instruments, especially the low brass. As a result, many of the manufacturers that worked with DEG and Getzen have worked together.

Right, the 5xJ series.

I guess I should say that most don't know where the G-50 really came from rather than inferring that Getzen's relationship with the Europeans was some sort of secret. That isn't what I meant.

[ZACH336]

Some folks love them others hate them but one things for sure these squat little beasies have held there value really well over the years!

[Tom]

Yeah. They didn't sell enough to justify the cost of the tooling/labor/materials. If they sold a great deal of them they might still be in production.

I know this because I spoke to a Getzen rep a few weeks ago about this topic specifically and that is what he told me. I take the information at face value because it seems very plausible.

I don't know exactly why they quit building them, but I don't think it's a case of not selling enough. As my previous post was getting at, Getzen didn't come up with the tooling or provide the labor. The valveset is a slightly reconfigured B&M set and all the brass bits (including the bell) were done by MW. The tooling still exists, by the way, it's just been mothballed.

In fact, I remember the exact opposite...that you couldn't get one anywhere in the heyday of their production. Nobody had them in stock and there were waiting lists to get the next one that came in.

I don't think there were that many that were actually made, but don't know if that means a few hundred or a few thousand.

Even though the euphonium isn't the central focus here, I think it's interesting to look at how the euphonium was different than the tuba...all parts by Willson / Kurath including plating done under the supervision of Willson. The plating done on the euphonium is 1000% better than what was ever done on the tubas. I think Getzen did do the trumpets (and perhaps the trombone and horn) in house, but like I said, none of those models seem to have had much success.

[Tom]

What I've always found humorous about the G-50 vs. 56J (and yes, these two models - in my view - are legitimately comparable instruments: bore size / CC length / body size ) is that no one seems to raise any issues about that G-50 rotor being stuck right in the mouthpipe tube (OK...fine), but others seem be princesses trying to sleep on peas when it comes to the way-down-the-line placement of the 5th rotor on the 56J.

You're absolutely right.

The 5th valve in the leadpipe setup is a Bob Rusk signature. When I had mine, I wondered about alternate 5th valve placement, but with the way the horn is laid out in stock configuration, there really isn't anywhere else practical to put it. The tuning slide legs after the valve set are really short and the "wide side" is pretty big, though probably no worse than on a 6450 or so. I've never seen a 6450 up close, so I don't know. I do recall that one of the popular mods for that model was to reconfigure the 5th valve tubing with a wider crook to make it more "open," but I never did it and left mine in stock configuration. Played just fine.

I liked the Conn 56J just ok. My preference in that series was actually for the smallest one, the 52J. I never thought much about the 5th valve on that except that the linkage seemed a little flimsy.

[BuzzedB]

What would yo uconsider to be your cup of tea then bloke

[k001k47]

What would yo uconsider to be your cup of tea then bloke

I believe bloke does most of his playing on one of these:

[BuzzedB]

I somehow find it hard to picture you as a three banger kind of guy.

[SousaSaver]

I asked Brett Getzen last week why they don't make the CB-50 any more. He said they discontinued it because of lack of demand and making a Tuba tied up a great deal of resources. They could build several Trumpets and Trombones for every one Tuba.

So there you have it.

The people at Getzen are wonderful, courteous people who put up with people like me on a regular basis. Really nice folks.

[TYA]

Cab the CB 50 be related to Harvey Phillips conn cc tuba at all?

[SousaSaver]

[arpthark]

Is there an image of a carbon-bell G-50 lurking about...?

[Bandmaster]

This is the best i can find...


But my questions is.... has anyone ever seen a Getzen Model G-52 BBb tuba? I've never heard of them before, yet they are listed as an option on the flyer above? I just remember playing the CB-50 (or G-50) at the NAMM Show the first year it came out, and was blown away by how good it played.

[darth2ba]

Here's a video of Canadian Brass and there are some close-ups of the carbon-fiber bell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aurMKeVHZDI" target="_blank