Rotary Kalison DS CC tuba

[bort2.0]

Did this version actually ever exist in the real world? Or is this photo (er... drawing?) the only evidence of it?



http://www.kalison.at/c-tuba/c-tuba_6001.php

[jtm]

You've killed their site.
I love the way that 4th valve circuit looks, even it there may be other reasons not to do it like that.

[cktuba]

These did exist. I believe the first Kalisons in this country were rotary. I've heard the original rotary versions of the CC weren't very good. But I never got to play one.

When I went to the Kalison factory to pick up my Pro 2000 in the mid-90's they did not have any rotary CCs. But they did have a rotary F that I really liked. I remember the rotars having a short throw and being very fast. I would have liked to try one of these.

[the elephant]

I played one in 1990. I did not like it enough to look into getting one. In 1993 I stumbled across Paul K's piston DS, which was marked Prototype #2 and used a different piston set than the production horns used. I loved that tuba and bought it that day.

The piston horns were the better of the two this one time. (I generally find that the rotary versions play with better intonation when there is a horn with both valves available. I do not like the piston Neptune at all, but I *love* the rotary horn, as an example.)

If you could locate a not-too-far-away example of this model to test I would make the effort as they were pretty good. I would NOT buy one sight unseen. The 23 combo was STINKY on the one I tried. It was a little squirrelly on the piston horn I bought, too, but not unmanageable. The dreaded Kalison high Ab was a major issue on the rotary horn example I played, whereas my piston DS did not have the issue at all.

The build quality of these is not great. Everything feels a little cheap and the plating comes off. Tube ends are sharp, internal joints are not always cleanly done, and tube ends are cut crookedly. Joints tend to have large gaps. I think this is why these did not sell more. You could get a really great horn, but it was just as likely that you did not. They were a lot like Chinese horns today, in that one regard: inconsistent.

If you are tire kicking, consider kicking this one down the road. The piston horn was much more popular even in the days when rotary horns were still keeping up with piston horns in popularity. That ought to say something about this model…

Cheers!