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I’m wondering upon reading this thread again, when this big horn fad will go away.

I think another reason for the influx of Chinese tubas is that many think a York copy will make them sound better and play better. I just don’t believe that’s true at all. In fact, listening to myself play the HB compared to the MRP, I feel that I sound infinitely better on the smaller tuba. The less work I have to do to play in tune and hold the tuba makes me more able to focus on actually playing this thing well.

Everyone likes to play the “my tuba is bigger than yours” game nowadays, and the opportunity to buy a cheap big horn makes the other stuff just less popular.

Bringing in my HB again, I’m happier playing on this tuba than I’ve been with literally any other tuba I’ve owned. And most of them have been bigger. Yeah, I paid for this tuba more than a Wessex York, but I just don’t see the quality in those horns being anywhere near that of the HB.

After all these years, I finally own a big tuba that can easily be played in tune, still put out some really clear and defined resonance (PLUS mucho), and not sound fluffy. I never could achieve all three of those to my personal satisfaction with one of those big York-looking C things, which is why I suspect more and more people - who have stuck with C, having been told that they needed a C tuba for college, decades ago - decided to move down a half size or so, as did I. I also suspect that's why - of all the York style C instruments - the Yamaha is the most manageable, because it's a bit smaller than most all the others.