Recording bell F-tuba?

[pjv]

+1 Contact Tim
+1 buy an F helicon from Cerveny/Amati
+1 large-bore cimbasso
+1 find an Eb bell-front tuba, but then learn to play it.

All of these will work and most will cost less time and discomfort then trying to rediscover the wheel.
I've been to Tim's before when he made a lovely BBb cimbasso for me. Great hospitable guy living in a beautiful area. Worth the visit. If you're nice to him he'll show you the restaurant where Roger Bobo used to eat eggs & brains for breakfast.

Cheers

[quesonegro]

Tim showed me the pictures and it really looks great!!

Suggesting that a helicon, large cimbasso or Eb tuba is the same as an F front bell...not so much...it's like suggesting that the answer to a specifically apple related question is to be better solved by using an orange, banana or pear instead...

//Mattis

[pjv]

Of coarse the sounds are different, but then again no two tubas even sound a like.

On the other hand if you ask your colleagues (not just the ones that play tuba or bass trombone, ha ha) often they of coarse hear a difference between two tuba's but have absolutely no idea why we even bother to bring more then one tuba because the difference is minimal to them. And most probably the audience.

The question then becomes what is the result you want to achieve?
Having played in jazz big bands my experience is basically that we are basically either the lowest member of the trombone section or someone has actually heard a tuba in their head when making the arrangement and has thought about that sound when penning the notes.

But what exactly was that sound the arranger had? A BBb Holton BAT? An Eb Besson? An euphonium?? And is this sound concept present in every arrangement?

If they're writing for you you're lucky, but still the field is wide openvsince it's your gig.

-An F helicon is an F tuba, just rolled up differently. Sound wise, the most noticeable differences between that and your Wilson are probably more related to long leadpipe/largebore/etc of a rotary instrument as apposed to the short leadpipe/smallerbore/etc of a piston instrument, and that between Amati and Wilson in general.

-An good Eb tuba shouldn't sound that much different then your Wilson. The notes in your big band are probably the same every gig so its just a question of learning.

-OK, I forgot that you are a cimbasso guy so you know what thats about.

To make a long story short, cutting up your own tuba means at the very least burn marks, possible lacquer loss and possibly never getting your tuba's old sound back if you decide you're not happy with the experiment. I suggested the alternatives because they don't need to be made (€€€+experiment=???) but can be readily tested.

Good luck.

[quesonegro]

But that's just the thing, the difference between the Amati and Willson is huge and the Eb front bells that I've seen are also of a completely different kind of tubas than the one I play. I wouldn't want to settle for a less good instrument just to make it cheaper!

As far as sound goes, what concerns me is mostly my own sound concept, not that of the arranger, but most of the stuff is actually written directly for me since 95% of our work is commissioned by and for the band , with the arranger also conducting the project.

I was just curious if anybody had any experience with an F frontal...which Tim does

When the time comes for a new horn I'll look into again, maybe it makes more sense to get a nice, old, big Conn Recording as a second option instead, get a different sound all together...

I'm sorry if I was a touch abrasive, I just felt that your answer was off topic and a bit condescending...

it pushes my buttons sometimes, nobody's human

Cheers

//Mattis

[quesonegro]

Here are the pics of Tim's Frontbell F, I hope you don't mind, Tim!?

[Frank Ortega]

I have an Eb York one piece front bell That I would sell that would probably be perfect for a bell front F project.

Here's a pic of it in a Harv Hartman project that never happened: