EEb as your bass tuba

[cjk]

Don'T most players in England or their former territories still fancy the Eb tuba?



I'm not sure if territories is the right word.

[Billy M.]

I use a Besson New Standard compensating Eb with a 15" bell. The smaller leadpipe and bell allow the horn to generate a singularly characteristic bass tuba sound that comes across as perfect to me for some of those famous high tuba parts in orchestra (Berlioz, Mussorgsky, etc...). Intonation is quite good. The only thing I'm still working on as I have more fun playing it is the need to reign it in a bit, the small bore and bell also means it can get loud easy and sound quality diminishes. Pros and cons to every horn, I guess.

[AHynds]

I don't think I'd fall into the realm of the pros mentioned earlier, but I am one of the seemingly rare (but ever-growing!) breed of tubists in this country that use an Eb tuba over an F tuba. There are a few reasons for it, not the least of which is the fact that I happened, purely by circumstance, upon a really cool Eb tuba (a B&S PT-22P, which is sadly no longer being manufactured--it's the B&S cousin of the Meinl-Weston 2141, with a slightly different bell and the B&S valve block). I spent about two and a half years playing both F and Eb tubas for various purposes, but I finally came to the realization that splitting my time between the two was not constructive (I had a difficult time really nailing down the feel and intonation tendencies of either instrument, due to straddling the line between the two). After an extended time waffling over which instrument to let go, I finally came to realize that I just feel more comfortable as an Eb tuba player, despite playing the F for a much longer time period. So, I put my F tuba up for sale, and started spending all of my bass tuba time on the Eb.

There were a few other reasons for going the Eb/CC route, and one of the biggest was the growing realization that, at the end of the day, your lips are basically doing the same thing regardless of what horn you pick up. If you can't play a high G# on your CC tuba, then going to a bass tuba won't help all that much, minus putting it on a slightly more stable partial. Just think back to earlier in the century, when all those old pros were playing everything on their BBb and CC tubas! Now, of course that doesn't mean we should stop using bass tubas--there's a very good reason that we play Symphonie Fantastique on a bass tuba and not a CC tuba, and that's primarily for the timbre difference.

I think there are plenty of completely legitimate reasons to pick an Eb tuba over an F tuba, and it's heartening to see that more and more players are dropping (or at least relaxing) the old bias against the Eb. I still expect to receive some odd looks at the next few auditions when I pull out the Eb tuba, but you know what--I feel more comfortable on the tuba, and the key of instrument I choose won't suddenly make up for any lack of preparation on my part.

AH

[MikeMason]

You might get odd looks in the warm up room,but probably not on stage.

[cambrook]

Uhh... I don't think anyone, besides, me and couple of museums, own EEb tubas. Perhaps you're referring to the Eb-bass tuba, being roughly 13.5 ft long? Or maybe the compensating Eb-bass?

Re the confusion about Eb vs EEb - when I was actively involved in the brass band scene here in Australia in the 70's and 80's an Eb Bass had 3 valves, and the typical 3+1 compensating Eb tuba was called an EEb Bass.

I know of many fine players who use an Eb as their bass tuba, and some of them also use F tuba in some situations. I'm a bit like Bloke in that I find it makes the job easier if I use the best "tool" for the job, and I'm lucky enough to have access to multiple instruments. Sometimes a traditional rotary F is exactly the sound I'm looking for, other times it's a bit light (in my hands).

I've been without an Eb for a while now, and that slot in my toolkit is filled pretty well by my MW2250 - which is almost an EEb tuba pitched in F. Having said that, I'm really looking forward to getting my 18" bell York Eb in a few weeks