Posted by Mark Preece on May 05, 2003 at 00:52:17:
In Reply to: custom C tuba. posted by yamahaha on May 03, 2003 at 20:38:59:
Which model of C tuba are you looking at? Is it the YCB 822 or the YCB 861?
I bought a 861 about 5 years ago. It was a 5 rotor laquer model. It was quite easy to play, and the low C (2 leger lines) was particularly full, dark, and well in tune. I used it throughout my BMus career at Wilfrid Laurier University in Kitchener Ontario, and it worked quite well. The price was average for the sheer quality of the horn, sitting at $9000 Canadian. I later came to realize after getting accustomed to the horn, that the rotors were not the highest quality. This is really my only beef with the horn. No matter how much I cleaned, oiled etc. the rotors, they still had that loud "click" sound once they were broken in. This also made the horn sound cheaper than it really was, and it was also quite annoying to myself as well as others... especially in the supposedly soft and delicate solo of Mahler 1. This was my first C tuba, and so I thought it was the best thing ever at the time. Once I graduated from university, I had by this time acquired my high horn as well, a Besson Eb 982. This made me want a real CC Contrabass Tuba, in order to increase the range between the large horn and the small horn. I have since sold my 861 for the same near the same price I originally bought it, and have gone to a 6/4 CC VMI 5198. This is absolutely perfect for what I want. Now I have a high horn in the Besson Eb 982 for solos, quintet, and the lighter orchestral rep; and also the huge 6/4 VMI 5198 for the Mahler's and the Bruckner's etc.
I guess my point in all of this is to first figure out if you are looking for a high/low horn combo, or one horn to do it all. I would definately go with the VMI 5198, as it is undoubtedly the best 6/4 I have ever tried.