Mack 421S opinions

[JaxBen20J]

I am considering doing some horse trading and I'd appreciate some other folks' thoughts.

I bought a relatively inexpensive F tuba (clone of a Miraphone 80) just about two years ago because I wanted to learn to play an F tuba, and I've really enjoyed having it. The only non-noodling use I have for it, though, is in quintet. I'm just not a soloist and have no interest in that approach to life. I've found that I really just kind of prefer playing in C overall, even though I've gotten pretty adept at F. I find myself looking more and more at the Mack 421S as something that would fit into how I use a tuba in quintet. My 410 is a little beefy for use in my quintet - sounds good, of course, but a .770 bore is quite a bit more effort than the F clone at .710, or potentially the 421's even smaller bore.

Ideally, I'd really like to test a 421S to see how it feels, but unless someone local to Atlanta has one and wouldn't mind meeting up for a blat-fest, I'm kind of relegated to other people's opinions. In a perfect world, if the 421S is a good fit for me, I'd be able to do a mostly even trade +/- cash to make everyone satisfied.

I'd love to get some thoughts as to how well some folks think switching from that F to a small C might work in practice, or whether it might be ill-advised due to reasons I just can't fathom.

Thanks!

[bone-a-phone]

I've got a Mack 422 - similar to the 421, but it's BBb, and only 4 valves instead of 5. Plus, I'm mainly a trombone player, so there's a different perspective.

The 422 has been surprisingly easy to play, and it gets a nice sound for it's size. I got one with a 16" bell, which I would definitely recommend over the smaller 14" that is also offered. I've had more than a couple people mention that they liked the sound it gets. I find it to be pretty nimble, and gets around the high and low range well enough for my purposes, which has been small bands and chamber stuff. The piston valves have been pretty good once they were broken in.

It seems to work with a wide range of mouthpieces, but the different sizes do what you think they'll do. From Bach 18 to Helleberg down to contrabass trombone mouthpieces. I have tended to play a Bach 25 size, but it gets a richer sound on a bigger piece, obviously. Mine came with a no-name 24aw size, which I don't use, but it does sound pretty good.

Getting the slides to slide has taken some work. I'll just leave it at that. I got it from Tom at the beginning of pandemic.

The intonation is ok, but I seem to have a hard time getting the pitch down where it belongs. It might just be my trombone chops and small mouthpiece, but I have to pull the mts as far as it will go, and I'm still a bit sharp. 3rd valve especially needs vented because there's a tuning slide and a spit dump slide, and if you push the 3rd slide back in too fast with the valve closed, the spit dump pops out. Same with 4th valve, but the spit dump for that is, well, less facile, let's say.

Still, for what you pay for these models, they do what they are supposed to do, although it may take time to get them worn/dialed in and adjusted.

It might be worth your time to just drive up to Virginia and talk to Tom. He'll help you go through horns in the warehouse. He knows them pretty well, and he's a good player himself. I've bought 2 horns from him, and he was straight with me, and easy to work with. For all the personal attention and extra inside stories he'll tell, your trip will be well rewarded.

[LibraryMark]

I've got a Mack 410 (186 C copy) and I'm sharp on it, too. I can't pull the slide out enough to play in tune with it sometimes. I do wonder if that was a cost-saving measure at the factory, to use a little pipe as they could get away with. Or, maybe I just play too sharp.