Chinese tubas getting prettier

[Rick F]

I agree that for a Chinese made tuba, that is a very attractive look, but I'd be more concerned with how it plays

Agreed. My brass tech has a saying, "You can't play no shine"

[Dan Schultz]

.... Not THIS one:

Uh.... I think I'll have the 'riveter variety' please. THAT's 'all-American'!

[Untersatz]

I spoke with Troy Laabs about this new tuba yesterday & also gave him a piece of my mind about all of the
Bull Sh*t advertising, misleading comments, erroneous specifications & just plan WRONG information
I also got some accurate specs. if anyone is interested:
He said that it is a 3/4 BBb tuba with a .787" bore & a 17 3/4" bell & is 38" tall.
I don't quite agree with it being a 3/4 horn.......with those specs. I would think it would be a 4/4 size tuba.

[Greg Lecewicz]

Look at the bell collar, nickel plated joints and nickel plated pipes where you touch them. This is a lot of work to put this together. There is still not enough info how do they play. Soon we'll find out cause the price is superb. It's not even close to the products from a few years back. What an improvement ! Imagine this horn in silver with a gold collar and gold inside the bell and nickel touch parts with gold slides, gold valve covers etc?

[MartyNeilan]

TMM/Mark -
I believe those are the specs for the 4/4 HB2 copy. Definitely not a 3/4 horn, although at 37" it is not overly tall like the 44" B&S copy which may lead to the misnomer.

Greg -
Unlike Getzen/Edwards and some other trombone manufacturers where the parts are nickel plated, on many European tubas the ferrules and outer slides (sometimes inner slides too) are usually made of actual nickel silver aka "German silver". Whether the Chinese are using nickel silver, or just nickel plating brass remains to be seen. Nickel silver is much harder than brass (and the even softer red brass) so it is a good choice for connecting points and anything that may see a lot of friction. I have even seen Mirafone and Rudy gold/red brass horns where the entire valveset casings are made from nickel silver.

[MackBrass]

TMM/Mark -
I believe those are the specs for the 4/4 HB2 copy. Definitely not a 3/4 horn, although at 37" it is not overly tall like the 44" B&S copy which may lead to the misnomer.

Yeah you're right. here's the tempest page for that horn. It sure does look like the same tuba to me, but the specs are different than what they gave over the phone

http://www.tempestmusicalinstruments.co ... egory_id=3" target="_blank" target="_blank

This is definitely not the HB2 copy, not sure what it is or how they play. As to gold brass being an option this has been made available for about a year now. I have found that all gold brass tubas have a nice warm sound but lagging in the way they respond. By adding just the gold brass bell you get the nice warm sound and keep the great response.

[MackBrass]

Whether the Chinese are using nickel silver, or just nickel plating brass remains to be seen.

An excellent question that I just pondered myself the other day.

Does any one know by first hand experience* "who uses what" with regard to the Chinese makers? Jin Bao, etc.

*As in not a guess or conjecture. Took it apart, saw that parts were solid nickel or just nickel plated...

The instruments I carry with nickel trim are solid. I have plenty of spare tubes and parts I stock and can validate it. This includes all inner and out slides as well as ferrules and other trim. Some models are made with nickel outer slides with brass inner and some will both brass inner and outer but the best stuff is made with nickel inner and outer.

[MackBrass]

Since I buy mainly from Jinbao I get most parts from them. The parts I stock are for the horns I carry. Not sure if I can get pictures of the insides but the unfinished tubes and slide I have are easy to tell they are solid. Also you can tell the differences of plated vs solid by scratching it. I think it would take longer to go through a plating process than to use the real thing.

Tom