Choosing a Rudy Meinl F tuba

[cambrook]

In February I had the opportunity to visit Rudolf Meinl to choose a new 4/4 F tuba for my orchestra. I was staying east of Zurich with my friend and colleague in the St Gallen orchestra, Karl Schimke (who also has a Rudy Meinl 4/4 F), so on the morning of Thursday 20th we put his tuba in the car and left for the 3 1/2 hour trip on the Autobahn to Bavaria.

We arrived in Diespeck about 11am, and when we walked into the factory we saw a tuba held together with tape and twisted wire, standing alongside another tuba body. Rudy had made 1 valve section, along with 2 different lead-pipes, 2 different bodies and an additional set of 4th valve tubing with a slightly smaller bore. As you can see in the photos everything was held together in that manner to allow for substitution of parts.

We went straight into testing the various options and it was immediately apparent that this is an excellent instrument. We started with the lead-pipes and it didn’t take long to choose the best one. Rudy wouldn’t tell me the difference between the 2 lead-pipes until I’d made my choice, and it was interesting to learn that a small change to the taper - about 0.25mm (0.010") at the mid-point - made such a noticeable difference to the response.

The next choice to be made was the 4th valve tubing, between the standard 21mm tubing and an alternative one made in 20mm tubing. Karl has experimented on his tuba with putting some sleeves in the 4th tubing to reduce the bore slightly, with the intention of improving the focus of the area around C and B below the stave. After some persuasion Rudy had agreed to Karl's suggestion that he make a complete smaller 4th circuit, as Karl felt it would be even more successful than just sleeving the straight sections near the slide.

The new tuba has such an excellent response in the “problem” area with the standard 4th tubing that we found that there was no benefit in moving to the smaller bore option. There was no real improvement in the ability to centre the low C and B, and the sound was slightly constrained in the low register. It was a potential solution to a “problem” that isn’t a problem on this tuba, so the decision to stay with the original tubing was an easy one.

Changing the valve section into the other body was a slightly more involved process, and while the new body also played well the tuba didn’t feel quite as responsive. I initially thought that could be due to differences in the amount and placement of the gaffa tape, but when Rudy reinstalled the original bell it was clear that the tuba was better with the original body.

Once the choices were made we moved on to sorting out the ergonomics. I chose the optimum height of the lead-pipe for me - a bit higher than the usual location, and we spent quite a long time adjusting the layout of the 5th valve paddle and its pivot point. Rudy had misunderstood my request for all the valves to rotate in the same direction and had made an unusual looking trigger for the thumb to operate the 5th valve, but he was happy to replace that valve and linkage with a more usual layout which I know works well and feels comfortable.

Small adjustments of a few mm have a big impact on the ergonomics, and while Rudy Jr mounted the new 5th valve lever Karl and I paid our respects to Rudy Sr and his wife by allowing them to ply us with coffee and too much cake.

Fitting the new 5th valve lever made it possible to find the best location for mounting the thumb ring, so it was great to fine-tune the ergonomics before the tuba is lacquered.

By this time it was 6:00 so we let Rudy Jr go home and we went to the hotel; we just managed a couple of good local beers and attempted a massive pan of food was too much for us.

In the morning Rudy already had the valve section removed and it was being worked on, replacing the 5th valve and venting all of the valves, and as the photos show my name was marked on the body with the position of the thumb ring well marked.

I also took the opportunity to try some of Rudy's other tubas, which I wrote about here.....

http://tinyurl.com/n5pwu63

As you can see this was a great opportunity to do much more than choose an existing instrument from a shop - I was able to choose components and have a custom-fitted instrument.

I was very fortunate to have Karl there, apart from being a great guy (and player!) it was invaluable to have another set of ears - and also as an experienced player of the identical model of tuba. His understanding of the instruments made it easier to communicate the details of feedback in German conversations with Rudy, and he was very generous in arranging his schedule to drive 330kms each way.
I also want to thank Rudy for his great work, and being so willing to find the best combination of options to suit me.

As you can probably guess I really enjoyed the whole experience, and truly appreciate the opportunity to have such a great instrument for use in my orchestra. I've put some photos up here -

http://tinyurl.com/qjakk2r

[bort]

That is SO cool! Congratulations on the new tuba, hope it made the trip home safely!

Also, a "+1" for Karl -- I met him through email here a few years ago, really nice guy!

[The Bone Ranger]

Great pictures, Cam. The custom work, and the ability to be able to test out different bodies, is a pretty amazing opportunity. I bet that horn is as good as I imagine. Trombone players are very lucky; there are a number of factories (Shires, Edwards etc) who have completely modular instruments, and you can try out any number of components quickly and easily. Often undoing two screws by hand is all it takes to swap out a component. The wonderful experience you've had is about as close as a tuba player can get...

I love how the factory is just dripping with history. Old horns hanging from walls, hard concrete floors, beaten-up wooden benches.

The Rudy factory is definitely on my bucket list.

Andrew

[cambrook]

Thanks 58mark,

It must have been late, you are quite right - I've edited the comment on the photo in question...

Cheers,

Cam

[oedipoes]

wow, great trip, thanks for sharing it !
Rudolf Meinl makes some of the best tubas out there, I enjoy my 4/4 BBb a lot!

Wim