Anyone know what make & model this horn is? It's obviously a 6 rotary valve F tuba, but I've never seen one with 3 valves for the RH & 3 valves for the LH. Gerhard Anker of the Austrian group Die Innsbrucker Böhmische normally plays this tuba & has a phenomenal sound (which I'm sure is mostly due to his playing ability) but the HUGE dark (but not too dark) tone that he generates from this BIG F tuba is amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A36CjZ23Z-A" target="_blank (at 0.54 secs. you can see a good close up shot)
The 2nd video is a studio recording & has a much better sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pWPYeMnWaY" target="_blank
Anybody here ever hear a better sounding F tuba (as a contrabass tuba)?
These guys are amazing! Check out their CD "Perfectum Est!"
If anyone thinks Gerhard is just an average tuba player...........check this out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw1Jy8QZFpM" target="_blank (video is poor quality but audio is great)
King 2341 (New Style)
B&S PT-600 (GR55) BBb
Blokepiece "Symphony"
The 3+3 is the Viennese system, to my knowledge. With the 3rd (or 6th?) valve tubing exiting the valve in the type of curve that it does, I would guess it is a Hirsbrunner.
Anybody here ever hear a better sounding F tuba (as a contrabass tuba)?
It is still a basstuba, as it is an F tuba. His sound is great, but Craig Knox's sound on his relatively recent solo album is not to be beat IMO.
Craig Knox's sound on his relatively recent solo album is not to be beat IMO
While I completely agree that Craig Knox is an immensely talented virtuosic player, The type of sound he generates on that Meinl Weston 2250 F tuba comes off sounding more like a trombone than a tuba. So my thoughts are why play a tuba, if it's going to sound like something else? I realize of course we a talking about solo playing here, but most of us mortals (average, amateur BBb horn players) that will never play solo music or own or even play an F tuba, will stick to our oom pah's & our normal bass lines in the concert band repertoire and sound like "tubas"
King 2341 (New Style)
B&S PT-600 (GR55) BBb
Blokepiece "Symphony"
While I completely agree that Craig Knox is an immensely talented virtuosic player, The type of sound he generates on that Meinl Weston 2250 F tuba comes off sounding more like a trombone than a tuba. So my thoughts are why play a tuba, if it's going to sound like something else? I realize of course we a talking about solo playing here, but most of us mortals (average, amateur BBb horn players) that will never play solo music or own or even play an F tuba, will stick to our oom pah's & our normal bass lines in the concert band repertoire and sound like "tubas"
Doesn't sound like something else. You should listen to some recordings of trombones, so that you will know what they sound like. Craig sounds like he is playing a basstuba that has the color that is demanded for expressiveness in a solo performance setting. It is being resonated maximally with a lot of core. That is what Craig sounds like on that recording.
TubaMusikMann wrote:... Craig Knox ... The type of sound he generates on that Meinl Weston 2250 F tuba comes off sounding more like a trombone than a tuba.
When this thread was first up, I wrote Gerhard Anker via the group site to ask about his tuba. He sent a reply a few hours ago:
The tuba is a Hirsbrunner F that he found by accident 22 years ago. The fingering is after the Wiener Griffsystem (not what we call Vienna fingerings). It was previously used in the Viennese orchestras but has now next to disappeared. It was developed to increase the number of alternative fingerings for better intonation. Gerhard Anker had to relearn his fingerings from the ground up. Normal 1st and 2nd are in the left hand.
