Posted by Joe S. on February 24, 2001 at 23:20:53:
In Reply to: Pls read before flaming: BBb vs. CC? posted by Steve Inman on February 24, 2001 at 13:46:53:
A fine EEb tuba is a "darn friendly" quintet tuba.
personal impertinent info: Currently, I am "making" an EEb helicon out of an extraordinarily-intune-and-resonant-York-made EEb sousaphone (rare-for-York: .687" bore) by mounting a York EEb upright bell tuba on to the 1st branch, removing the dents, and rebuilding the pistons. This old thing has very convincing and secure false tones, and (on appropriate pieces - maybe Ewald, and numerous other works) I would strongly consider this EEb helicon for quintet use.
I've used an F in quintets for years (with rare CC use, on quintets where the tuba is "strickly bass line" stuff) ' cause an F is what I've had. I used a 5v York EEb (20" upright, .655" bore) "Sellmansberger special" front-action tuba in a quintet for a short time, but someone kind of bought that one for considerably more than it was work to me. The helicon that I am completing is actually a better instrument than was that York tuba.