Posted by A Guy in CA on October 13, 2000 at 01:10:40:
In Reply to: Re: Holton,York cut jobs posted by Chuck on October 12, 2000 at 15:50:07:
wow.....don't know of many horns that were elongated to lower the pitch, what a labor of love that must have been. Glad to hear such a project worked for you Chuck.
IMHO, there is a real relation of "goodness" in a cut CC to it's original "goodness"
as a BBflat with help of the crafter doing the work, in other words,
a) if a BBflat horn is really superior, and a good crafter works it over,
there's a decent chance it will be a good CC. It might even turn out to be a really superior CC. But there is no guarantee, and a LOT of tuba designs don't lend themselves well to such modification.
b) Guys like Mr. Rusk WON'T cut tubas generally anymore because it often isn't worth the gamble and effort-unless it's a really special case that is. They'll NEVER touch a poor tuba, can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear is what Mr. Rusk told me.
c) even if a BBflat horn is superior intonation-wise, you must still consider more about the sound of the horn you are starting with, if the character of it's sound is like a BBflat horn, after cutting it will have a character of sound like a BBflat tuba, except it will just be pitched in CC
d) bigger horns develop more problems post-cut than smaller horns. Some of the "expected" problem partials in big (read "6/4") tubas are made worse in the cut examples. My limited observations are that sister horns to these cut BATs are generally better in the problem areas than the cut ones are. I am also thinking the "expected problem areas" are to be expected in the cut-to-CC BATs that are out there.
e) I have a cut "5/4" CC horn that was selected to be cut from a group of new BBflat instruments, and it came out very well. The guy who did the work had a lot
to do with it too, but to tell you the truth, there's a measure of luck or fortune involved that no one can quantify. Interestingly, the factory that produced that line
of horns had persistent problems with their CC's until they incorporated some of those changes in the last few "5/4" CC's they produced (why they are not building
this type horn now is beyond me, they'd probably sell a bunch of them.)
I have often wondered if the master craftsmen we so lovingly venerate ship every tuba
they build, or if they build more tubas than they wind up shipping. What happens to the inevitable bowsers that don't cooperate with tweeking and adjustment, are they still ragged clean and polished and plated or laquered? Could there be a reason why some "outlets" have lower prices for ship-direct, and the store-front retailers generally
won't try to beat those prices?