Posted by Rex Roeges on November 27, 2002 at 13:55:53:
In Reply to: Re: in your dreams posted by Matt G on November 27, 2002 at 12:52:00:
I agree with you that BBb's are probably the way to go for a National Guard unit. However, the horns that you recommend, while certainly wonderful, may be a bit large, especially with four of them, for the group, depending upon how large the group is. My experience is that a single Kaiser Hirsch in BBb puts out a very large amount of sound. I can hardly imagine what 4 of them will do ("4 Kaisers beats 8 pairs of Trombones"). Now, if the group is 100+ members, heavy on brass, maybe it is justified. As you said, there are lots of terrific BBb's available, it may be worth looking more closely at some of the 4/4 sized horns. The sound power available from four of nearly any type of tuba is an awesome thing!
Another possibility is mixing BBb and Eb horns (2+2). If the players are available to play this combination, you can get some very nice ensemble sounds and excellent musical flexibility for the section. It will also give you more long term personnel-related flexibility (what if you only have Eb players available in 5 years?).
I would think that any current models from Willson, Hirsch, Miraphone or MW would probably do well for you. All of these are very well built and will serve a Nat'l Guard unit for decades. I do not mention the UMI instruments (Conn and King) only because I do not have personal experience with the new ones. No slight to them is intended. I think that the Yamaha horns tend to be too light-weight (thin metal) for institutional use. I am not a fan of the Besson ergonomics, although their instruments sound very good.
One final point: will the unit ever have to march or perform standing with these instruments? If that is the case, large horns may be burdensome. Many 4/4 sized horns come with harness rings, but I don't know of any of the larger ones that do. This is something to check before ordering.
This sounds like a nifty project, almost worth enlisting for ;^)
Rex Roeges (who normally thinks CC and large is terrific, but is recommending BBb and 4/4 sized here, and who doesn't use quotation marks in the middle of his name, but is very bad about run-on sentences)