Posted by Jay Bertolet on October 02, 2000 at 19:25:16:
In Reply to: Professional Orchestral Tubist Question: posted by Eefer Owner on October 02, 2000 at 16:51:06:
As another poster mentioned, I've been playing CC and Eb for years. 15 years here in the Florida Philharmonic and a few before that in college. In college, the time came for me to choose which small tuba I would like to play. I tried many F tubas and really never found even one I liked. Then I tried a Yamaha 321. I found I could do all the things on the Yamaha that I needed to do on a small horn. Considering that was mostly excerpts, it wasn't much to worry about because none of those were terribly technical or exploited the lower range. I played a few solos on my Yamaha but the bulk of the work was on my CC. I eventually took the audition I won and landed here in South Florida with my Rudy CC and my Yamaha Eb.
When I was on the job, it became obvious to me that the Yamaha was a good horn but not a great horn. There were definite things it couldn't do and I was especially bothered by the low range. Certainly, the low range was better than on any F tuba I had tried but it still was a little stuffy and I had some intonation difficulties because of only having 4 valves. I began to experiment with other Eb tubas and I ended up buying a Boosey Sovereign. It sounded really great and was exactly the sound I was looking for. But I never could get truly comfortable with the 3+1 setup of the valves and again, even though many like the compensating system, I wasn't able to be really comfortable with the low range intonation. Then I found a Willson Eb that I really liked and that is the horn I currently use. I also decided along the way to try and find an even smaller Eb, something that sounded more like an F but pitched in Eb, for those very few excerpts where that sounded really appealed to me. I eventually settled on a Cervany 641 Eb for that.
The reason I tell you all this is because I wanted to illustrate just how diverse the Eb tuba can be. There are just as many sounds to Eb tubas as there are sounds to CC tubas. As with choosing any horn, it is all a matter of finding what sounds good to you and does what you want. In my opinion, you can do anything on an Eb that you can on an F. They are virtually interchangeable in terms of function. After that it really is a matter of personal preference. My experience with the compensating system was not good but your's may be better. The key is to have a clear idea of what you want the horn to be able to do when you go looking. You might want to have some idea about the type of sound you want but don't eliminate choices based on this. You never know which combination of you plus horn plus mouthpiece will yield that certain something you seek.
But certainly, the Eb is a legitimate orchestral tuba to use for your small horn and the Besson 983 Eb is appropriate for you if you sound good on it and you are pleased with the product that you produce using it.
My opinion for what its worth...