Now that I'm not as young as I used to be, I can't blow like The Big Bad Wolf anymore. Once I used a Bach-copy Holton 7 for everything, but the big mouthpieces and big tubas that I could once play with ease are now unmanageable air hogs.

Striking a intelligent balance between good intonation, air ...

That's truly impressive, bloke. Most of the ensembles I've played with could desperately use a horn player capable of such mighty volume and excellent tone.

Here's hoping she remains an active horn player for a lifetime.

That's a neat mellophone, and a nice gift...here's hoping the valves are decent.

Pull the slide coming from the F/E-flat change valve and see if there's D and C markings on it, or HP/LP markings. I don't think it's long enough for a pull to C.

The slide-on ferrules on the 3rd valve slide look way ...

I oil up before each and every playing session:

Schiller/Jinbao JBBB-520 tuba: Hetman #3. Switching to Yamaha Vintage Synthetic was a sticky, gunky disaster.

Yamaha YEP-321S euphonium: Have used Al Cass since it was new in 1994. Valves are like new and never stick.

Trumpets/Cornets: VIncent Bach ...

What a beauty! I'd love to give that a test play.

FWIW, I have a Pan American alto sax with nearly-identical bell engraving.

It does play well. Very punchy, seems a bit smaller than a 14K. Intonation-wise, nothing stuck out to me as being overly awful. Agreed; these aren't big sousaphones. My Martin Indiana E-flat seems to be about the same size as I remember the Elkhorns to be.

The bell on the Elkhorns had a bit of a ...

Elkhorn division of Getzen? I’ve got no answer to that.
The public school system I attended had four Elkhorn by Getzen instruments: the two sousaphones and single F horn mentioned in my above post, and a baritone saxophone keyed to low B-flat.

All of the Elkhorns I've come across are stencils ...

Wow, seeing this thread sure brings back memories. The first tuba I ever played was one of these.

My school had two of them, from different vintages.

The older of the two resembled the one pictured here:
- Had nickel-silver outer slide tubes and bow guards
- Had plain tuning bits that had pips ...

Wondering what the provenance on that Buescher sousaphone is. I played an identical one in the mid 1990s with the Escanaba (Michigan) City Band, and it was a glorious instrument.

Prior to my arrival, it had been a while since anyone in the Band could handle such a monster sousaphone, and I haven't ...

I'm 6-foot-3 and have been using the Cosco 24-inch folding stool out on gigs, available at most any Walmart in the USA. It's surprising how much more air capacity I seem to have when using this versus a too-low chair.

I also have a Hamilton Traveller II portable music stand, which comes with a ...

:tuba: I'll do y'all one better... Give you an answer from the horses mouth (bell?)

Just picked it up off the wall... It's a very small receiver. Too small to properly fit a LS trombone mouthpiece even. But too large for a euro trombone mouthpiece... It's... Uh... It's interesting. It plays, but ...

Any luck finding a workable wee eb?

Was gonna comment i might have thoughts of ebs i like, but that is too open ended for this thread.

As per the one mentioned at BBC, looking the pic over, i would expect it to take a smaller shank than most would expect. I mean a really small shank, not just ...

They broadcast using really crappy omnidirectional microphones that make us sound like we are playing kazoos. It's the Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis Tennessee, and it's an Episcopal cathedral. I think the service starts at 10:30 CDT, we are playing a bunch of stuff with organ and choir ...

To MBFS's point above, I have an odd little "All*Star E Bass" mouthpiece here that is way shallower and smaller than I would use on anything else. Works great on my small 1890s Boston and Distin.
The All Star mouthpieces were included with Pan American instruments, some of which were also quite ...

Unlike other brass instruments, the size variation of tubas has always been much wider, 1/4 size to 6/4+ size in every key. One thing about the Eb tubas from the first half of the 20th century that is important to consider is that most all of them, regardless of size, were designed around what ...

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not interested in a brand-new tuba, and have not been pleased with the three Chinese wind instruments I've owned thus far.

I've got a Martin Indiana E-flat sousaphone and a Holton Monster E-flat upright that both play well; the smaller one I'm in search of now is ...

The "Champion" branded tuba at BBC is a tiny, ~100 year old European 3v instrument.

https://baltimorebrasscompany.com/p-15066-champion-3v-eb-tuba.aspx

Last time I was there, I did not give that one a toot, but the caveat on the website of "This instrument is an antique and was not serviced in ...

Hey all...

I'm looking around for a compact 3V E-flat tuba and not much has been turning up. There's a Champion E-flat tuba at BBC that's been there for quite a long time. Has anyone here given it--or one like it--a test play and, if so, what were your impressions? Thanks in advance...

bloke, if your brain is wired like mine, you can work out the rhythms, phrasing, articulation, pitch, and dynamics of a passage on just about any alternate instrument, and once you've nailed those things down and etched them into your musical memory, you're playing it much more "on autopilot" once ...

Yes. I sometimes use a euphonium and even the clarinet to work on tuba stuff.

Is it really that different than working out a difficult tuba passage using a piano, then going back to the tuba? Nope.