"You're used to it."

[MackBrass]

Agreed. For me learning F tuba back in the day was an Alex I purchased new from Giardinelli, turned out to be the last one they ever imported. Beautiful gold brass with nickel casings. Took a while to get used to it but once I learned how to buzz the frequency properly every f tuba after that, piston or rotor didn't make a difference.

All a piston does is make it a little easier to focus so there is maybe a little less reason to practice down there? I dont know. When it comes to f tubas, the old German style rotary wins every time in sound and intonation for me. At our booth we had three different model F tubas, yes all rotors, we do have two piston models that are coming very soon with one that is as close to the true German sound as you can get and if all goes as planned will be one of the best F tubas available anywhere.

About 8 years ago I approached JinBao about sending my mid 70's hand made Symphony model as their current, at that time firebird look a like was a disaster. Well about 7 or 8 months later they sent me the first production model and nailed it. It wasn't the symphony model I was looking for but more of the PT15, what we currently sell, the modern, slightly larger version of the old symphony. We decided to put a rose Brass bell on it and have carried it ever since.

Fast forward to now, ZO was able to bring back the original symphony design both in 5 and 6v versions and nailed it where it was first seen at the Army conference last week at our booth. Compared to the modern larger bore brother, the low register is just as good as any rotary F on the market, or I should say on the market that I have had a chance to play on.

Comes down to what's currently available and what sound you are looking for as well as its use and purpose. Any rotary F can do what any piston can do, or I should really say the player can do.

There are certainly trade offs with both rotors vs pistons but what it comes down to is the sound you looking for and what you will be using for. If F tuba is your only horn then piston may be the way but if your looking for that beautiful German like sound with incredible pitch then the rotary is the way to go. I have never owned a rotary F tuba where I needed to pull slides where it seems every piston F I have owned or played needed some kind of slide manipulation on the fly.

[iiipopes]

Yes. From a personal perspective, years, nay, decades of playing school and/or borrowed tubas and sousaphones, albeit BBb or CC, until I was able to afford my own have led me to the same conclusions. You gotta play to the horn and learn how to coax it into what you need it to do in the particular ensemble.

[timayer]

I learned F on a school B&S PT-10. I can't remember whether I knew about the expected issues with the low C, but it was relatively quick to work out, and I never really had a problem with it. I moved to at 182 years ago, haven't looked back, and have almost certainly gotten lazy with the C and would need to re-refine it were I to go back to a more traditional F tuba.

I've also always been lucky in that my CC horns have always had a very strong low G.

HOWEVER

I have never played an F tuba with a solid low A (2-4-5, 2-3-4, 1-2-4, with various types of slide pulling and pushing).
I have never played a CC tuba with a solid low E.

I can usually put it together when needed in a specific context. But it's always something I have to learn/relearn whenever context requires it.

Also at this point, I only half jokingly consider it a case of the yips. It is what it is. Fountains of Rome and I don't get along.