Wessex "Wyvern" 5/4 CC Tuba Review - A YouTube Special

[Dylan King]

Hi everyone,

Here's a link to my latest, ultimate tuba geek-out review video on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/h1YAVDSS7Os



Have a peaceful weekend!

Dylan

[Sousaswag]

Love the review. I've been waiting for this ever since you reviewed the Eastman. Keep it up! And review the big Willson BBb!

[tylerferris1213]

Thanks for the review! I've been wanting to try one for awhile, but no one in the area has one yet.

[rodgeman]

Thanks for the review.

[bort]

Sorry about the Dodgers.

[Dylan King]

The Dodgers are my team, being from LA, but Houston proved to be the better team. It was a great series!

[Watchman]

Is this horn a big 5/4 like how a PT-6 is, or a little 5/4 like the Miraphone 129X series??

[Ken Crawford]

Is this horn a big 5/4 like how a PT-6 is, or a little 5/4 like the Miraphone 129X series??

Well it uses the same bell as the retired "Michigan" which was a clone of the 1291, so there you go.

[Ken Crawford]

Braces were mentioned in the review. I've owned 5 Chinese built tubas, from Schiller, BMB, Wessex and Wisemann. My Wessex had the sloppiest soldering and brace work of any of them. Don't let that stuff slide Jonathan.

[Ken Crawford]

...sloppiest soldering and brace work of any of them...

I was a _________ (made in northwest of Chicago) dealer for a couple of weeks a couple of decades ago.
As a "test", I FIRST ordered five models of instruments from them that - 95% of the time - were ordered with silver plated finishes.
I ordered them with clear lacquer finishes.
The lacquer finish (among other things) revealed the quality of workmanship (messy).
I sent the first order back, and cancelled the dealership.
Another domestic company (a couple of hours east of Chicago) that offered some seemingly pretty good instruments had nice-looking solder joints...but (I found out later, when touring their factory) they used a chemical to eat away solder that their scraping didn't catch...but it also turned the remaining parts of the solder joints to "Swiss cheese". Also, that company's assembly was very hurried, and trumpets' #1 and #3 slide pairs (as a rule) required ME aligning them...so I would never order their "intermediate" model in silver...just in case I had to resort to using a torch.

"Crap from China" is not the only "crap" the world has ever seen; I've seen plenty of "domestic crap"...

...and yep, German crap, too.

Yes. I stated my observations as they related to the video review. I wasn't comparing Wessex to European or American brands. I know, every company has cranked out junk at one time or another. I think many Chinese tubas are great and I want to see Wessex be wildly successful.

Wessex, please continue to improve your bracing and soldering...

[Wyvern]

The braces and soldering is something that we have been particularly addressing at the factory this year. Chuck Nickles has even been given training to factory workers on Wessex production to improve their soldering work. While new jigs are being made to hold all components in line for soldering without stress. So I’m confident in the latest production this will not be a problem. Simply if the instrument is not good enough, it will be rejected and never leave the factory. We get more strict with our level of acceptability with every batch to continually raise the standards.

The Tuba reviewed is a demo example as mentioned in the video, and over a year old as indicated by the foambody case which has since been replaced by hard cases with latches for the Wyvern.