modern marching tubas & sousaphones

[toobagrowl]

So I recently stumbled onto some DCI vids and gotta say I'm quite impressed with the sounds the new "contras" (marching tubas) make these days. I know this has been talked about before, but not into great detail. Yamaha and Jupiter are apparently making very nice 4/4+ size BBb marching tubas with large 21" bells and .689"/ .728" valve bores, giving a "concert tuba" sound on the field. I don't see much mention of King (Conn-Selmer) or Kanstul these days regarding these horns.

I have played (and still playing -- helping out at a local college) the Yamaha 411 and find it to be very nice; reminding me very much of the King 'Giant' sousa I played back-in-the-day with it's big, warm-yet-'gruff' sound (which I like ), good intonation (better than Conn 20K), easy response and excellent craftsmanship.
I've heard the Jupiter sousas have gotten better.
And bloke has talked about how the new Conn-Selmer sousas (King and Conn) are just not what they used to be, and how some of the new Chinese sousas are pretty nice.

Does anyone else have any experience with these new marching tubas and sousas? And if so, how do they compare to the old 'classics'. Do you think Conn-Selmer has maybe "dropped the ball" on marching brass, and now other companies are perhaps making better instruments?

Discuss.

[Jose the tuba player]

1)Yamaha and Jupiter are apparently making very nice 4/4+ size BBb marching tubas with large 21" bells and .689"/ .728" valve bores, giving a "concert tuba" sound on the field. I don't see much mention of King (Conn-Selmer) or Kanstul these days regarding these horns.

2)I've heard the Jupiter sousas have gotten better.
And bloke has talked about how the new Conn-Selmer sousas (King and Conn) are just not what they used to be, and how some of the new Chinese sousas are pretty nice.

3)Do you think Conn-Selmer has maybe "dropped the ball" on marching brass, and now other companies are perhaps making better instruments?

Discuss.

1)Dont know about the yamaha but i tried the jupiter contra i felt it has the same problem as their sousaphones being heavy and not really resonating but it was very heavly braced.

2) haven't tried the new jupiter sousaphones but id be interested to try them but i still doubt their durability.

3) have you seen their system blue tuba? http://www.conn-selmer.com/en-us/our-in ... hing-tuba/" target="_blank
it looks kick *** ,i want to try one.
i just think its just that alot of people get better deals on jupiter or yamaha than they do on king and kanstul, i tried a kanstul but can't really judge it since it was dented and leaking everywhere,

[brocktorock]

I just got back from using a King 1151SP marching tuba for a summer of drum corps. They're very front heavy, very thin and easy to dent, and have very poor intonation, we had to use 1+3 for concert F to even get it close to in tune. I had limited experience playing a System Blue contra from the same company, but it felt much more balanced and the intonation seemed much better also.

[Bandmaster]

Both the Jupiter and the Kanstul BBb marching tubas are full 5/4 sized horns. The Yamaha is a 4/4 sized horn and I believe so is the King/Conn BBb marching tuba. It's not the size of the bell that matters, it's the size of the bugle (bows) that does.

[toobagrowl]

Both the Jupiter and the Kanstul BBb marching tubas are full 5/4 sized horns. The Yamaha is a 4/4 sized horn and I believe so is the King/Conn BBb marching tuba. It's not the size of the bell that matters, it's the size of the bugle (bows) that does.

Bugle size matters, but so does bell size and bore size.

Here are the basic specs of the modern marching tubas/contras:

Yamaha YBB-202

Key - BBb
Size - 4/4
Bell diameter - 21"
Bore - .728"
Valves - 3 pistons
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical- ... mode=model


Jupiter 5080 Quantum

Key - BBb
Size - 5/4
Bell diameter - 21”
Bore - .689”
Valves - 3 pistons
http://quantummarching.com/instruments/ ... hing-tuba/


SB50 King

Key - BBb
Size - 4/4
Bell diameter - 20"
Bore - .734"
Valves - 4 pistons

*link already provided by Jose*


Kanstul 200 BBb

Key - BBb
Size - 5/4
Bell diameter - 21"
Bore - .689"
Valves - 3 pistons
http://kanstul.net/detail.php?pass_sear ... ng%20Brass


Yamaha and Kanstul make several models of marching tubas, so I listed their largest offerings.

Getting back to sousaphones......

Has anyone tried the 4-valve Jupiter or Dynasty BBb sousas

[DouglasJB]

Our marching band has two Jupiter 4 valve sousas, I love getting the chance to play on them. The only complaints i have heard are about the smaller bore (as compared to a yamaha sousa) and the valves will stick if the bottom valve caps are tightened down all the way.

[iiipopes]

Are any of these "convertible" for both concert and field work?

[toobagrowl]

^ That's good to hear about the 4-valve Jupiter sousa. I'd like to try one someday, as well as these other new marching tubas and sousas.

Are any of these "convertible" for both concert and field work?

The ones I posted above seem to be dedicated marching tubas; not convertibles. It would be great if they were all convertibles, though, especially if they all came with 4-valve models. The would sell like hotcakes to schools if they did that.
Yamaha and Kanstul make convertible tubas, but it seems their nicest/biggest marching tubas are dedicated for marching use.

[OldsRecording]

In my opinion, the majority of convertible tubas do both jobs in a fairly mediocre fashion. When they are in 'Marching Mode', the valves are horizontal, and most of them are carried on the right shoulder, so they are very uncomfortable to use. Also, most convertible horns tend to be smaller (the only exception I've seen is the larger of the two Yamahas, the YBB201WMC) so the sound production is simply not there, as opposed to a Sousaphone or a 4/4 or 5/4 dedicated marching tuba.

[iiipopes]

In my opinion, the majority of convertible tubas do both jobs in a fairly mediocre fashion. When they are in 'Marching Mode', the valves are horizontal, and most of them are carried on the right shoulder, so they are very uncomfortable to use. Also, most convertible horns tend to be smaller (the only exception I've seen is the larger of the two Yamahas, the YBB201WMC) so the sound production is simply not there, as opposed to a Sousaphone or a 4/4 or 5/4 dedicated marching tuba.

More reasons to just use a good souzy and be done with it. Before my school could afford both tubas and souzys, the souzys did double duty, and we still got almost 30 consecutive "I" ratings at state contest under the long-tenured director.

[THE TUBA]

Of the current crop of marching tubas/B-flat contras, I like the Yamahas the best.

[Jose the tuba player]

In my opinion, the majority of convertible tubas do both jobs in a fairly mediocre fashion. When they are in 'Marching Mode', the valves are horizontal, and most of them are carried on the right shoulder, so they are very uncomfortable to use. Also, most convertible horns tend to be smaller (the only exception I've seen is the larger of the two Yamahas, the YBB201WMC) so the sound production is simply not there, as opposed to a Sousaphone or a 4/4 or 5/4 dedicated marching tuba.

you've never seen the kanstul 5/4 convertible contra
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/msg/4605046947.html" target="_blank here it shows both configurations
http://www.kanstul.com/detail.php?pass_ ... ng%20Brass" target="_blank
and they even offer a convertible 4 valve cluster but they don't advertise it.

[OldsRecording]

In my opinion, the majority of convertible tubas do both jobs in a fairly mediocre fashion. When they are in 'Marching Mode', the valves are horizontal, and most of them are carried on the right shoulder, so they are very uncomfortable to use. Also, most convertible horns tend to be smaller (the only exception I've seen is the larger of the two Yamahas, the YBB201WMC) so the sound production is simply not there, as opposed to a Sousaphone or a 4/4 or 5/4 dedicated marching tuba.

you've never seen the kanstul 5/4 convertible contra
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/msg/4605046947.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank here it shows both configurations
http://www.kanstul.com/detail.php?pass_ ... ng%20Brass" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
and they even offer a convertible 4 valve cluster but they don't advertise it.

Okay, I stand corrected. It's just that the majority of convertible horns I've seen (The smaller Yamaha or the King, which seem to be the most prevalent) are small and awkward. I remember years ago King did make a side-valve convertible. The first and third slides were interchangeable, so when it was in 'Marching Mode' the first and third slides were actually reversed.

[ken k]

Bill those King convertibles you mentioned were actually Conns. The were based on the Conn 12J/5J body. I actually liked those horns. The ergonomics of the horn, while a bit unorthodox, with having to switch the valve slides for the 1 +3 valves, actually worked very well. These were a smallish 4/4 horn but had a nice sound, like the 5J, and were not as blatty as some of the smaller convertibles. I would imagine however with the usual lack of maintenance that HS horns tend to get, the slides would end up sticking and then you couldn't convert them around very easily.

k

[OldsRecording]

Bill those King convertibles you mentioned were actually Conns. The were based on the Conn 12J/5J body. I actually liked those horns. The ergonomics of the horn, while a bit unorthodox, with having to switch the valve slides for the 1 +3 valves, actually worked very well. These were a smallish 4/4 horn but had a nice sound, like the 5J, and were not as blatty as some of the smaller convertibles. I would imagine however with the usual lack of maintenance that HS horns tend to get, the slides would end up sticking and then you couldn't convert them around very easily.

k

Okay, I stand corrected a second time. I was recalling an ad in The Instrumentalist magazine from 1981.