Rotary MW2000?

[joh_tuba]

Was there ever a rotor version of the MW2000? Or 2145 for that matter?

Unsure of a B&S equivalent made with rotors.

Just pondering what the options are in rotary smaller 4/4 CCs that have truly been buttoned up in their design the way the 2000 was.

[bort]

Not that I know of... in fact, MW doesn't make many rotary CC tubas at all. There is the Tuono now, but that's a pretty large tuba. On the smaller side there is the MW-32 or the MW-37 (Bill Bell model), but I don't think either of them are in current production. Both of those are 4/4 tubas, and both have their fans... but I think it would be inappropriate to make a comparison to the MW 2000. FWIW, it seems like the 2000, 2155, and 2145 all have very distinctly "piston tuba shapes," which makes me wonder if a rotary valve block would even work on it.

You might want to check out the rotary PT-3... this was the B&S "answer" to the Piggy, and they can really be nice tubas. I used one throughout college, and liked it a lot.

[Big Francis]

I have a friend who owns a custom rotary 2155. It was purchased used, and I don't know if the factory or someone else did the custom work. The horn sounded great, but has some "intonation quirks" as he put it. The horn has two slide kickers to help manage intonation.

[Bob Kolada]

Do you mean the 30/32? The 20 is a fairly tall horn.

[joh_tuba]

I've never considered the 2145 and 32 to have similar bugles... just never occurred to me. They play and sound SO different.

That said, if they revisited the MW32 design with the same engineering that has been applied to to the original 2155R in producing the Tuono/Thor(and piston 2155 to MW2000) they could conceivably develop a spectacularly popular instrument.

RE: PT3. Great tuba. Owned one in the past and might own it again in the future. My only beef, and the reason I sold it, is the sharp 3rd and 6th partials. If they made the PT3 with a better scale it would qualify in my mind as a 'rotor MW2000'.