Looks AND brains?

[rperrym]

I think the engraving on my B&S GR 51, (PT 605), is very attractive and the horn plays great.

Rick

[bort]

The Alexander kranz engraving is pretty cool, you know.

I also love the NY Skyline engraving on the MW 2000.

The engraving on the Neptune is also pretty slick, and they play well. I liked mine a lot, and it had bling for days.

B&S is pretty okay looking.

Some MW models have fancier engraving as well. I think Kanstul has some nice ones as well, but I don't know how well they play (I.e., if they were amazing, wouldn't we see more of them)?

That said, my current horn is exceptional, and has a boring *** triangle. Same with Miraphone... I've never met a bad one, but boring *** triangle engraving. (Well, the Willson engraving is a little cooler when you think of the triangle as a mountain... Flums, Switzerland is in the middle of the Alps, after all!).

[Mark]

http://www.artisticengraving.com/tubas-sousaphones

[MartyNeilan]

Walter Nirschl York - Bell by Zigmant Kanstul
viewtopic.php?t=58176

[bort]

A pity that such a beautiful horn ever had anything to do with the Red Sox.

[PaulMaybery]

http://www.artisticengraving.com" target="_blank" target="_blank

You can pretty much get what you want.

I see this has already been posted.

[toobagrowl]

The engraving on the Neptune is also pretty slick, and they play well. I liked mine a lot, and it had bling for days.

Some MW models have fancier engraving as well.

I agree about the Neptune. Yeah, the "new-style" Bell-model M-W CC comes to mind. Nice engraving on the detachable bell and rotor paddles. Similar to the Neptune in that regard. Plays/sounds as good as it looks, imo.

[bort]

Got a photo? I never knew the late model Bell models were like that!

[pjv]

The Kanstul tuba etchings are quite beautiful.

[bisontuba]

The Wyvern Dragon on the gold brass Wessex tuba bells is very well done!

[southtubist]

Just get a custom engraving on a boring (but exceptional) tuba.

[bisontuba]

Few have played it, but I can assure you that the tuning is quite good.

I think that goes to the head of the helicon class!!

[Tubajug]

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: that thing is GORGEOUS!

[toobagrowl]

Got a photo? I never knew the late model Bell models were like that!

I don't have a photo, but I've played one -- about 15+ years ago at a WWBW booth. It was a brand-new "Bell model" M-W CC with a detachable bell. There was nice fancy engraving on the bell, and the rotor paddles had that deep-etched 'flower' design, much like the rotor paddles on the Neptune. That, combined with the already-attractive-geometry of the horn and it's nickel-silver trimming make it a very beautiful tuba I remember that tuba playing very well and being quite heavy for it's size. I also have a M-W catalog from about that same time (abt 15 years ago) that has that tuba pictured (model 37, "Bell model") with its description.

Nice looking helicon, bloke

[bort]

Thanks for the info about the Bell model.

The MW Titan on eBay right now also looks amazing. No clue how it plays...

[bort]

Does the "Titan" have the same bugle as the Mel Culberton "Apollo" rotary F tuba, or the same bugle as the 45SL-P ?

I would be more interested in trying out more piston F tubas were some of them...
- graduated bore (starting out at something LESS THAN 7/10"), and
- 6 valves (ref: the one that bort mentioned in the previous post)

The best I can tell, it's just a form of the 45-SLP. I'm not sure how similar it is to the Vulcano F tuba (the Apollo's piston-valved sibling), but it really seems a lot like the 45-SLP. Why aren't there more 4P + 2R F tubas?