Posted by Rick Denney on December 24, 2000 at 14:20:06:
In Reply to: Re: MW 2165 & 2145 in BB? posted by Tom B. on December 24, 2000 at 13:44:57:
The real question for me is all that cylindrical tubing. You have to add about 25 inches of tubing to lengthen a CC to a BBb, and it seems like that should change the sound. But it will likely have less effect than shortening tapered tubing to go the other way.
But there have been other tubas with convertable slides to switch from BBb to CC, such as the Getzen G-50, and even the old Meinl-Weston rotary tubas. I remember seeing a picture in Bevan's first book of the M-W in both configurations. But they have never seemed to catch on, and I wonder why.
I also know that the York Master BBb horns seem to have a better reputation than the almost identical Bohm and Meinl CC horns, but that the latter doesn't enjoy as good a reputation for intonation. Though the intonation of mine, even in BBb, is not perfect. Yet.
Speaking of which, a fellow at TubaChristmas in DC asked me how good the intonation on my Yamaha 621 F was, and I told him is was perfect, but that my intonation as a player wasn't so good. I suppose that's true for all horns!
Rick "tin ear" Denney