Posted by Todd on June 28, 1999 at 18:42:40:
In Reply to: Re: CC tuba posted by Jon B. on June 28, 1999 at 18:03:56:
Opinions...opinions...and yes...opinions! The best solo tuba is the one that YOU sound the best on. Am I wrong? It's rather funny how people write into the tuba BBS expecting to find out some secret tuba nirvana. No, I have not yet found a tuba nirvana. I just bought a huge 6/4 horn...and NO not because someone said it was the best one around or said "all the pros use it." I bought it because when I sat down with it, it had the best sound I have heard myself have on any tuba. No, I didn't need a 6/4 horn. I could have stayed with owning a 4/4 size horn. But I fell in love with the sound.
IMHO I feel that before anyone buys a horn that they think about what they are buying. You are spending a LOT of money on an instrument which is going to interpret your musical ideas. It is YOUR second voice. My advice, take a trip to a BIG music store that has various brands of tubas in all sizes. Make a fun day out of it. Sit down and play every horn you think you would like to play. Keep price a last consideration. (as all the fathers and mothers start planning my death)After you have played the horns and you found one you feel comfortable on and it sounds and does everything you wanted it to do, THEN consider what the cost is. Hey, if none of the horns tickled your fancy, then you didn't find YOUR horn.
I am on my 3rd and 4th horns. I used to own a Cerveny CC tuba that I bought site unseen brand new. I bought it because it was suggested to me and at the time i didn't know jack about tubas. But as a grew out of the horn I considered a new horn. I sold that horn and bought yet ANOTHER tuba sight unseen. I had only played a horn LIKE IT...and not the exact horn. Well, I lucked out....but I soon found out that the horn wasn't the right one for me. So I did exactly what I suggested above. It was the best tuba buying experience I had ever had. And ya know what....I walked out of the store very happy and with what I feel will be the horns I will use for the rest of my life.
I'll leave you with a GREAT quote that Matt Walters at Dillon Music told me. "You don't pick a horn, the horn picks you." Think about that one! :)
Happy tuba hunting! :)