Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

The bulk of the musical talk
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UDELBR
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Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by UDELBR »

https://youtu.be/beaxuusuJJ4" target="_blank" target="_blank
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by bort »

Very good, very long. He sounds like himself no matter what he plays. Thanks, Chris! :tuba:
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by MikeMason »

Always enjoy hearing a pro put a horn through its paces. Great sound and facility. After hearing all the videos, and allowing for his personal sound, you can definitely hear the differences in the various horns reviewed.
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by Ken Crawford »

All the slides moved. Wessex is really upping their game.
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by MikeMason »

I’ve had some very high end horns who’s slides didn’t move too.
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by swillafew »

That's a new horn where the slides don't move. You buy a used horn and the other person has already had that addressed. (3 new vs.4 used for me, and 100 percent on the rule).
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by Voisi1ev »

ren wrote:I have to say Chris sounds great no AMAZING on that horn. I am glad he recorded it in a room with (what I think is) a better mic than an ipad this time. Anyway it was more representative sound wise than some of his other reviews.
My only complaint is, I have never really bought into the 5/4 tuba concept, wait yes I did. I owned the Rudy 5/4 which was definitely a 6/4, and although we seem to be moving to the large, my favorite all around tuba, which is still in use to this day professionally (not by me) is either the 4/4 rotor Hirsbrunner or a 4/4 piston hirsbrunner. Maybe 4/4 is the new 3/4 now not sure.

For my personal taste, the 4/4 brunners were the all around, do everything tubas. Im not sure where the wyvern fits into that. Either way its a great sounding instrument. And thanks to Chris and Jonathan and Chuck for giving us a sense of innovation in tuba design.

Tried this horn at a show once. Maybe I was distracted by the 6/4 horns, but I thought the Wyvern is a 4.5/4 horn at the most.
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by Steve Marcus »

We all know that the terms 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4 are abstractions, without strict standardization of dimensions within the industry.

Since Wessex builds the 4/4 Anton CC and the 6/4 Chicago-Presence and Chicago-York CC’s, it falls into line from a marketing point POV (if nothing else) to label the Wyvern a 5/4. Although these designations refer primarily to size of the tubas, the notion of the Wyvern being a 5/4 tuba is substantiated in Chris Olka’s video when he mentions the weight of the Wyvern.

Nevertheless, if Wessex is presented with a bid invitation that reads “4/4,” we might opt to name the Wyvern as such.

It’s much the same as when as customer points to a 6’1” grand piano and asks, “How much is that baby grand?” There’s no reason to argue semantics if one can establish empirical terms such as, “I only want a bell smaller than 19” and height at least 35.5 inches,” or something like that.
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by GC »

IMHO the horn sounds good overall, but the high register tone was particularly lovely.
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by UDELBR »

dgpretzel wrote:
Did the title of this thread start out being something different than what it is now? (Did it have "Grand" in the title?)
Nope. Always said "Wyvern".
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by mwlorrison893 »

Steve Marcus wrote:We all know that the terms 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4 are abstractions, without strict standardization of dimensions within the industry.

Since Wessex builds the 4/4 Anton CC and the 6/4 Chicago-Presence and Chicago-York CC’s, it falls into line from a marketing point POV (if nothing else) to label the Wyvern a 5/4. Although these designations refer primarily to size of the tubas, the notion of the Wyvern being a 5/4 tuba is substantiated in Chris Olka’s video when he mentions the weight of the Wyvern.

Nevertheless, if Wessex is presented with a bid invitation that reads “4/4,” we might opt to name the Wyvern as such.

It’s much the same as when as customer points to a 6’1” grand piano and asks, “How much is that baby grand?” There’s no reason to argue semantics if one can establish empirical terms such as, “I only want a bell smaller than 19” and height at least 35.5 inches,” or something like that.
Steve,
I would have sent you a message on Facebook but I figured I would ask you on here that way other potential customers can see the response from someone who works with Wessex.
My question is this.... Does Wessex or whom ever plan on looking into the intonation mentioned by Chris about how the slides could be shortened. He brings up the fact about lipping up but also he did mention that it could possibly be where he is used to a different tuba. We have all been there when we have played a different instrument and the intonation is a little wacky until we get used to it ourselves. I was just curious if this was something that has been thought about being looked into and also maybe mentioned by people who have tried this particular horn out or own one as well.
Thanks!
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by Wyvern »

mwlorrison893 wrote: Steve,
I would have sent you a message on Facebook but I figured I would ask you on here that way other potential customers can see the response from someone who works with Wessex.
My question is this.... Does Wessex or whom ever plan on looking into the intonation mentioned by Chris about how the slides could be shortened. He brings up the fact about lipping up but also he did mention that it could possibly be where he is used to a different tuba. We have all been there when we have played a different instrument and the intonation is a little wacky until we get used to it ourselves. I was just curious if this was something that has been thought about being looked into and also maybe mentioned by people who have tried this particular horn out or own one as well.
Thanks!
I will answer this one as the person who makes such decisions. Wessex highly values feedback and particularly when they come from a player of Chris Olka’s level. We regularly make improvements to Wessex instruments based on feedback (always trying to improve our products) and you can be certain we will implement those slide changes suggested by Chris Olka, as we already have the repositioning of main slide water key mentioned in the video.
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Re: Chris Olka's YouTube review of the Wessex Wyvern

Post by mwlorrison893 »

Wyvern wrote:
mwlorrison893 wrote: Steve,
I would have sent you a message on Facebook but I figured I would ask you on here that way other potential customers can see the response from someone who works with Wessex.
My question is this.... Does Wessex or whom ever plan on looking into the intonation mentioned by Chris about how the slides could be shortened. He brings up the fact about lipping up but also he did mention that it could possibly be where he is used to a different tuba. We have all been there when we have played a different instrument and the intonation is a little wacky until we get used to it ourselves. I was just curious if this was something that has been thought about being looked into and also maybe mentioned by people who have tried this particular horn out or own one as well.
Thanks!
I will answer this one as the person who makes such decisions. Wessex highly values feedback and particularly when they come from a player of Chris Olka’s level. We regularly make improvements to Wessex instruments based on feedback (always trying to improve our products) and you can be certain we will implement those slide changes suggested by Chris Olka, as we already have the repositioning of main slide water key mentioned in the video.
Sounds Great! Thanks.
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