New F tuba

[Alex C]

Saw Mark's post in another thread about the new F tuba designed by Gemeinhart. You can find it here http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php? ... 2817834415.

Lots of interesting stuff. No more Nirschl name attached to any of their brass instruments!

They have the CC tuba along with the EEb, F and the BBb's. Barth has been busy to come out with this much new product in a short time.

Anybody played one of the F's?

[bisontuba]

Very soon, with Don...
mark

[phaymore]

So what's the story with these instruments? Is W. Nirschl no more? Are these new horns made in Brazil or China or the US? I loved the BBb I tried at Midwest last year. Is it still going to be produced?

Patrick

[bbocaner]

I hate it when companies who should have a Facebook "page" sign up as a person, instead.

[jonesbrass]

Aren't they made in Brazil?

[Alex C]

The W. Nirschl name will be used no more, according to the blog.

The tubas are "designed in Elkhart and made in China," also according to the website.

I don't know how close the new Gemeinhardt tuba will be to the old Nirschl BBb (which I also thought was a great horn). Don Harry apparently liked the new Gemeinhardt CC.

There might be a W. Nirschl BBb or two floating around in a music store somewhere if someone is really interested.

[joshwirt]

I played the prototype EEb last week and it plays really well (the F was in transit). There were a few ergonomic issues for me on the EEb, but Richard and I had a lengthy conversation and he's really interested in what others think. I'm not completely sold on the new dependent 5th valve setup....the new prototype CC has it and so does the new F (if I remember correctly), so I'll be interested to see if there's an option for a traditional in-line setup in the future.

The prototype CC that he is working with was in fact a W. Nirschl horn, though Gemstone (Gemeinhardt) and Walter have parted ways. The horns are now being manufactured in China with the same tooling that was being used in Brazil and with surprisingly excellent build quality stamped as Gemeinhardt. These are not Jin-Bao instruments!

Seriously....if I could get past the dependent 5th on this CC tuba....wow.

[Alex C]

Seriously....if I could get past the dependent 5th on this CC tuba....wow.

Maybe the "wow" is due to the 5th valve being out of the bugle. Barth makes that case on the blog.

However, I agree, I'm so used to playing C# and F# with 5th valve that it seems harder than ever to tune 4+2 anymore. I could be persuaded to give it up on two notes, for the right horn.

[joshwirt]

Richard kindly brought a batch of the W. Nirschl CC's and BBb's over for us to try out in 2010 at DePaul with Floyd in attendance. We all thought the 4/4 CC's were outstanding (except for the obvious leadpipe angle issues). We were 50/50 on which one we liked better (1 had an 18" bell and brass slide tubes)...and it seems Richard has continued development on this one by taking the 5th out of the bugle and adjusting the leadpipe.

Again, its been nearly 2 years, but I thought the horn played great even with it inline. I use the 5th for more than just 2 notes, so its a bigger deal to me.

But for the $$$$, this horn plays an awful lot better than it should....

[bisontuba]

Now on Barths Brass Blog ---FYI. and a discussion on the dependent
5th valve.
Mark