suckumentary

[Chuck(G)]

I swear to goodness that silver MW 2145 that they had at Baltimore Brass was the WORST, MOST AWFUL tuba I had ever played. The only thing that could possibly have been wrong with it that I was unaware was that maybe someone had accidentally lost several socks in it... or a cat crawled in it and died maybe.... maybe....

Otherwise, if those two things weren't the case, that horn was just TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So you didn't buy it then?

[MartyNeilan]

I swear to goodness that silver MW 2145 that they had at Baltimore Brass was the WORST, MOST AWFUL tuba I had ever played.

But Murph, EVERYONE knows that silver horns are better!!!!

[horto008]

Worst C: HB21 (only 8 or so years old)

I could not play anything below low C without sounding like I had a basketball in the bell. This horn almost discouraged me from ever wanting to play a Hirsbrunner again -- absolutely awful.

Worst MP: Bach 32E

contrabass trombone or tuba? without the blatting who could tell?

[Kevin Hendrick]

The worst euph I have ever played was this P.O.S thing I bought from a company in India. It is about the size on a large tenor horn ,not nearly as big as a bent bell baritone. It is almost impossible to play below anything below F ( in the staff ). It doenst play in tune at all . I never could get it tuned well enought to actually play with other instruments.

It is for sale. Anybody interested?

After a sales pitch like that, who wouldn't be?

The worst mouthpiece I ever played was the one that came with that horn. Very small an had a flat rim. Sounded like crap.

Is that a separate item, or does it go with the horn?

Worst C: HB21 (only 8 or so years old)

I could not play anything below low C without sounding like I had a basketball in the bell. This horn almost discouraged me from ever wanting to play a Hirsbrunner again -- absolutely awful.

Worst MP: Bach 32E

contrabass trombone or tuba? without the blatting who could tell?

Let me guess -- you were using the 32E in the Hirs, right?

[Tom Holtz]

Great thread, Bloke.

F - One of those six-valve jobs, maybe an Alexander... it was at the Army Band conference years ago. Sounded like a plastic stadium horn at a Wisconsin Badgers game.

Eb - A bucket of rust in my basement. No air makes it to the bell. It will be a lamp someday.

CC - ooh, toughie... There was a cut-up Holton that blew air back at me when I tried playing above pianissimo, took 'stuffy' to a whole new level... Those really little old Mirafone 184's, kind of like a musket--you ram the clams down the bell with a bag of powder, push the first valve, and BLAM... nope, the winner here is that crazy-oversized Kurath CC that Perantoni had for a few weeks back at ASU... it was the size of a small Volkswagen, and a bore size of around 1.015 or so... I would have got more sound out of it by kicking it than attempting to play it...

BBb - The sousaphone I just turned in today to our supply shop. It's tuned to A=494. The interval between C and D in the staff is a minor third. The main spit valve is designed to leak on my crotch every 10 minutes. You have to have lived in farm country near a poultry slaughterhouse to understand the tone concept behind this horn. It's best sound is produced by 'accidentally' slamming the bell into a metal door frame. Because of that horn, my ribs are perpetually bruised, and my back is in constant spasms.

I think Cameron is going to try to overhaul this horn. It needs to be filled with concrete and chucked into the Potomac River while a bugle plays "Taps."

Mouthpiece - that would be the mellophone mouthpiece that was laying in the instrument lockers in high school. When any of us needed to punch out the dents in the shank of our tuba 'pieces, drop that lovely, tapered mello 'piece into the shank and bang it on the wall until everything is nice and round again.

[MikeMason]

for me it would be an early rotary 2155.random notes came out where familiar ones should have been... but at least it had a 2nd valve slide trigger...

[tubatooter1940]

BBb-Worn out Reynolds and Holton sousies in high school.

CC-never played one

Eb-Soviet army issue upright,rotary,three banger.Any horn man would feel let down by this p.o.c..

Never played an F.

Best BBb-a new Conn sousie with short stroke valves.

Best Eb-My 1940 King recording bass.I am terrified to try any other Eb tuba because I might love it and then have to pitch it to the wife on bended knee.

tubatooter1940
www.johnreno.com/

[jaredsan]

- BBb tubas

Crap/ripoff Yamaha 3/4 marching convert. tubas. Buy a sousa!

- Eb tubas

Bach Cousenon. Built in Paris? Held up just like the cars made in that country.

- euphoniums

The 3-valve I played in middle school had been smashed against a curb by a car door. Try doing worse than that! (made by king or conn i believe.. not the instrument's fault!)

- mouthpieces

aw-24. booooring.

[me]

wost tubas eh? (you might see a trend)

Bb-anything in the miraphone 18x line (183, 185, 186 etc)
any full sized 3+1 tuba (besson, yamaha 321) you have to be a monster to hold one
meinl weston 25. the bell was too long and it was too stuffy. bad intonation too
CC-once again anything in the miraphone 18x line
HB-2 that the tuba exchange had last summer.
F- the yamaha my school has. i've blown in trombones that were more "open"

mouthpieces-anything that Bach puts out for tuba(cheapest POS with horrible intoation and no projection), schilke helleberg II (the rim is barely wider than the leadpipe. you've got to have a mouth like a 10 year old to fit in that thing)

[Doug@GT]

Worst BBb:
Miraphone 191


Doug "puts on flame-retardant underpants for this one"

[Cameron Gates]

BBb - without question the 3-valve upright Cousnon (sp). These horns were also engraved with the Holton name. I have played no fewer than 50 of these (I work in a repair shop) and each one could not suck enough.

CC - not too fond of early 2145's and 2165's.

FF - Don't know of any

EEb - Worst: Tom Holtz's Buscher helicon played by me
Best: Tom Holtz's Buscher helicon played by Tom
Ugliest: Tom Holtz's Buscher helicon

[Matt G]

BBb: Yamaha YBB-201/321. Bad copy of an OK horn. It amazes me that band directors still purchase these things. Awkward, bad pitch, and bad sound do not seem to be the things that add up to be a horn that has been selling in large numbers for 20+ years. Must come with free drinks for the band director for one year at his favorite watering hole.

CC: Kalison Pro2000 CC (5/4 - older model). Its a good thing Kalison designed a different 5/4. The Pro2000 would have made an excellent water feature or boat anchor.

Eb: Not enough tacit knowledge. I have owned one and played 2 or 3. The one I owned was a York. The pitch was pretty wacky, but thanks to the leaky valves it was very lippable. The sound was very nice however. I haven't really played a stinker.

F: Hirsbrunner F, maybe the HB-12 (??? - the bigger one). Was around $11K at the time (mid-90's) and worth about $0.11. Bad pitch, stuffy everywhere. The low register on this horn made a standard "German" F feel like it was a Yamaha YFB-621 on low C.

Sousa: Holton brass sousaphone from what looked to be the 80's. The bore was pretty small. That thing made the Yamaha sousa's we had at school feel like the best horn ever. The pitch wasn't bad, but the sound was worse than any fiberglass sousa I have played.

Euph: Not a ton of experience, but it amazes me how much better in every way the YEP-321 plays than the YEP-201. The 201 is real poop. Also, like another poster had mentioned, why does Besson even attempt a non-comp. Those are fairly bad also.

Worst MP: Yamaha 67C4. A marriage of it and a hacksaw deliver a decent visualizer.

For bass trombone: Edwards (flame suit on). No Edwards Bass-T seemed to have consistent scale and the ones I tooted on had leaky (bad) Thayer valves. I have played first generation Thayer valves and those were so much (read: not near as leaky) better than the Edwards units.

Tenor Trombone: Bach 36H. Does anyone buy these anymore?

[Rick Denney]

WORST of each (limit 3 per category, please)...

BBb tuba--Besson Stratford, though it may have been the condition rather than the design.

CC tuba--Recent model Cerveny piggy. I couldn't tell if it was just leaky or if the scale really was that bad. And for me to notice it, the scale has to be REALLY bad.

Eb tuba--my Missenharter when it arrived, and before I fixed it.

F tuba--my Missenharter after I fixed it. (Actually, I think it's better than the ultra-tiny German rotary no-name F that was peddled off in an "auction" at the Army conference a couple of years ago. I could not make one good sound on that instrument, and my Missenharter will allow me to make three, maybe four good sounds.)

Euphoniums--a Treibert three-valve saxhorn that I once owned. Very strange instrument, but it was good, cheap fun.

Mouthpieces--Reynolds Dr. Young. I'm sorry that Fred Young's reputation is so damaged by this travesty considering that the models he made himself are far better.

Rick "too inexperienced to name three per category" Denney

[MaryAnn]

Can't really name any tubas that were that horrible.

But I play-tested an old bell-front Eb alto in a store once...the Eb octave was Eb-D. I burst out laughing, gave the horn back to the guy and left the store. If he was going to try to sell me that...he had lost my business.

MA

[windshieldbug]

the Eb octave was Eb-D

That was one of those high and low pitch horns - you just didn't have the water key set right!

[Kevin Hendrick]

"what do I know about tubas, I am just a paramedic?"

I'm sure you know something about intubation ...

http://www.rippenspreizer.com/4images/d ... age_id=270

[ZACH336]

Great thread, Bloke.

F - One of those six-valve jobs, maybe an Alexander... it was at the Army Band conference years ago. Sounded like a plastic stadium horn at a Wisconsin Badgers game.

Eb - A bucket of rust in my basement. No air makes it to the bell. It will be a lamp someday.

CC - ooh, toughie... There was a cut-up Holton that blew air back at me when I tried playing above pianissimo, took 'stuffy' to a whole new level... Those really little old Mirafone 184's, kind of like a musket--you ram the clams down the bell with a bag of powder, push the first valve, and BLAM... nope, the winner here is that crazy-oversized Kurath CC that Perantoni had for a few weeks back at ASU... it was the size of a small Volkswagen, and a bore size of around 1.015 or so... I would have got more sound out of it by kicking it than attempting to play it...

BBb - The sousaphone I just turned in today to our supply shop. It's tuned to A=494. The interval between C and D in the staff is a minor third. The main spit valve is designed to leak on my crotch every 10 minutes. You have to have lived in farm country near a poultry slaughterhouse to understand the tone concept behind this horn. It's best sound is produced by 'accidentally' slamming the bell into a metal door frame. Because of that horn, my ribs are perpetually bruised, and my back is in constant spasms.

I think Cameron is going to try to overhaul this horn. It needs to be filled with concrete and chucked into the Potomac River while a bugle plays "Taps."

I laughed so much while reading this thread I thought it needed to be brought back to life. lol, I really thought this post here was a good one made me .

"Sounded like a plastic stadium horn at a Wisconsin Badgers game."

tears coming down my face after reading this! to funny I can just imagine that sound of plastic stadium horn coming out of an old f tuba like this.

[dwaskew]

EEb - Worst: Tom Holtz's Buscher helicon played by me
Best: Tom Holtz's Buscher helicon played by Tom
Ugliest: Tom Holtz's Buscher helicon

Yeah, true, same for me with the helicon, but you gotta admit, the tricycle bell is a nice touch which dresses it up nicely!

dwa

[Dan Schultz]

Man... I feel REALLY bad now At least one person on this forum hates each horn I own

[LCTuba89]

- BBb tubas: An old King 2140 front bell horn. No matter how many slides you pushed in, it always played flatter than a pancake and to top it off it stuck out like a sore thumb. Another one was a fiberglass sousaphone that always leaked in the valve section so it sounded like a giant kazoo.

- CC tubas: I own and play one CC tuba and I enjoy it so no bad ones here.

- Eb tubas: I own and play one Eb tuba and I enjoy it.

- F tubas: Never played one.

- Euphoniums: I've only played one and I was fairly impressed, of course it was a Besson so it's no surprise.

- Mouthpieces: 24AW, I used that mouthpiece fairly often after high school because that's all I had for awhile and it sucked balls.