Das Rheingold

[Kontrabasstuba]

@Kontrabasstuba, thanks for the comparison! Sounds like the second instrument cooperates a bit better on those low notes.

That is what you hear, but my feeling was complete different. The Dehmal is made in Vienna and the Sprinz is made in Berlin. The Sprinz is a "late" Vienna instrument

[MikeS]

Funny story about this excerpt. Learning F tuba at UK (that's the University of Kentucky for you Brits), the "studio horn" that Skip Gray required performance majors/upper classmen ed majors/etc. to learn F tuba on was this cruddy little Meinl-Weston 46 with the 4+2 setup, but with the linkage for the sixth valve snapped off and the valve taped shut with athletic tape, so it was essentially a 4+1. It was affectionately given the epithet "Flower Pot," because that's about all it was good for. To "graduate" from Flower Pot, you had to play all these contrabass tuba excerpts on it that lived in the low range: the big Rheingold excerpts, "Ride," and Fountains of Rome. I think some Snedecor was required as well. This helped students get used to the resonance characteristics in the low range of the German F tuba. Once you had "graduated" Flower Pot, you could move on to the GDR-era early Perantucci F, buy your own F tuba, whatever.

That brings back a memory. When NABBA was at UK (I forget what year), I was playing Eflat in the reading band and Tony Granados sat down next to me with what, I am now sure, was Flower Pot. He was conducting the Triangle Brass Band and had not brought a horn. He borrowed FP from the university. He half apologized saying that he’d never played this horn before and hadn’t played F for a while. He then proceeded to give a most impressive demonstration of sight reading with accuracy, style, and musicality. At the conclusion he made a remark that he would not miss playing that horn again. It’s good to be humbled now and again, and always nice to meet fine musicians who are also classy folk.

[arpthark]

Funny story about this excerpt. Learning F tuba at UK (that's the University of Kentucky for you Brits), the "studio horn" that Skip Gray required performance majors/upper classmen ed majors/etc. to learn F tuba on was this cruddy little Meinl-Weston 46 with the 4+2 setup, but with the linkage for the sixth valve snapped off and the valve taped shut with athletic tape, so it was essentially a 4+1. It was affectionately given the epithet "Flower Pot," because that's about all it was good for. To "graduate" from Flower Pot, you had to play all these contrabass tuba excerpts on it that lived in the low range: the big Rheingold excerpts, "Ride," and Fountains of Rome. I think some Snedecor was required as well. This helped students get used to the resonance characteristics in the low range of the German F tuba. Once you had "graduated" Flower Pot, you could move on to the GDR-era early Perantucci F, buy your own F tuba, whatever.

That brings back a memory. When NABBA was at UK (I forget what year). I was playing Eflat in the reading band and Tony Granados sat down next to me with what, I am now sure, was Flower Pot. He was conducting the Triangle Brass Band and had not brought a horn. He borrowed FP from the university. He half apologized saying that he’d never played this horn before and hadn’t played F for a while. He then proceeded to give a most impressive demonstration of sight reading with accuracy, style, and musicality. At the conclusion he made a remark that he would not miss playing that horn again. It’s good to be humbled now and again, and always nice to meet fine musicians who are also classy folk.

Tony was a bit before my time but I've met him once. Great guy, awesome player!