When do YOU use your smaller contrabass tuba?

[Rick Denney]

I use an F tuba for smaller ensembles. The facility in the upper register (and, hobbyist that I am, having partials not quite so close together at the top of the staff is helpful) is a big reason.

Big tubas can work in small ensembles, but I find I struggle to sound like I'm playing loudly without actually burying the ensemble. Loud playing has a different timbre that is sometimes appropriate without the sound actually being all that loud. That's where a smaller tuba helps, but in those situations I use an F.

I have two large Bb contrabass tubas, one that is a kaiser design and the other an American BAT. Each has its preferred applications, but the kaiser punches through our large ensemble better. I play in the Loudoun Symphonic Winds, and we play on a high-school stage that does not have a shell. There are usually two or three of us, and we could be happier with four. (In the rehearsal space, not so much. We can hurt people in that echo chamber.) I played a 4/4-5/4 tuba in that group for a long time, but it's easier with the big tuba. In past epochs, I played 4/4 tubas, but that's what was available and I was usually playing in larger sections or smaller orchestras.

If I played in a small amateur orchestra like I once did, I might use a 4/4 tuba more often. And as I age I begin to sense that playing big, heavy tubas does have an end-point that may occur before I'm ready to stop playing altogether.

So, for now, the 4/4-5/4 contrabasses remain mostly unplayed, while the kaiser and BAT are the go-to contrabasses and the F tubas fill the small-tuba role.

Rick "Wade needs a raise" Denney

[pjv]

I play mostly amplified popular-type music, recordings and brass quintet.

A far as contrabaas tuba's are concerned I'll use a 14K, Arion (small compact model) or a 2341 depending on my needs. I particularly like the Arion for it's deep sound and quick punchy attack. Even though it's an older model with a 14-ish" bell it doesn't get edgy like a 14K kind of edgy, retaining it's throaty bass sound even when I do push it to the edge.
I have a 40K and a 163 Alex if I want to go a tad larger, but my work usually doesn't profit from this (the 40K not being really that much larger, just heavier).
I recently sold my 36J. Absolutely beautiful sound but I never used it.

[PaulMaybery]

Really don't use a smaller 3/4 CC these days. Long time back I had a short affair with a 184, but could not really get it to work for me. Though it was great on Christmas Eve when we did 9 services with a small orchestra at Mount Olivet in Mpls. In general got more umpf from my MW F. Thought about trying the 184 again. My whole take on playing is so much different than 25 years ago. The large 6/4 F tuba (BMB) pretty much works for just about everything, but the CC BAT is the go to horn for Symphonic Band and Orchestra, that is when the BIg Boys are needed. For quintet, the BMB F is my choice.

[pjv]

Come on, how can you NOT want to own one of these?

[PaulMaybery]

Really don't use a smaller 3/4 CC these days. Long time back I had a short affair with a 184, but could not really get it to work for me. Though it was great on Christmas Eve when we did 9 services with a small orchestra at Mount Olivet in Mpls. In general got more umpf from my MW F. Thought about trying the 184 again. My whole take on playing is so much different than 25 years ago. The large 6/4 F tuba (BMB) pretty much works for just about everything, but the CC BAT is the go to horn for Symphonic Band and Orchestra, that is when the BIg Boys are needed. For quintet, the BMB F is my choice.

I believe the explanations for the popularity of the 184 CC in the 1970's were...

- They were available.
- They played better than most of the not-even-widely-available F tubas that were manufactured and found their way to the USA at that time.
- Most of us didn't have any experience with F tubas anyway.
- There was a picture of Roger Bobo holding a 184 in the Sun Valley, California Mirafone brochure.

The 184 was for some a surrogate for the F tuba, for the exact reasons Joe mentioned. There were very few Fs around for any of us to get much experience. They were a mystery. One friend basically called the 184 his F tuba, just pitched in CC.